It depicts the American-born writer Henry James in the final years of the 19th century. The eleven chapters of the novel are labelled from January 1895 to October 1899 and follow the writer from his failure in the London theatre, with the play Guy Domville, to his seclusion in the town of Rye, East Sussex, where in the following years he rapidly produced several masterpieces. The novel starts with a portrait of Henry as a public figure who feels humiliated in an unexpected way, not just in the public side of his writing career but also in a more personal way, in which all the precautions he had taken to carry on with his life as he wished it to be, come to a crisis. Henry resolves to reduce his public life by buying a house in Rye and there he nurses his loneliness and is haunted by all the consequences his need to maintain a protected space in which to live and write has generated all through his life. He''s in his fifties and he''s very much aware of how he had to refuse the company of his ill sister, whom he adored, at some point, how he chose to stay away from his country and his family, how he felt to turn cold with a writer friend he had been very close to previously and becomes a bachelor with an unresolved sexuality, certainly close to homosexuality, living in a house with servants in the South of England and a daily visit of the stenographer to whom he dictates. Appalled by the Oscar Wilde case, the portrait of Henry is not one of someone who just represses his self and his sexuality but of something more complex and ambiguous, of somebody who copes with life exerting a control on how much he''d reveal, even to himself, and choosing to be a writer in order to achieve precisely that.

The Master

Anti-Climacus introduces the book with a reference to Gospel of John 11.4: "This sickness is not unto death." This quotation comes from the story of Lazarus, in which Jesus raises a man from the dead. However, Anti-Climacus raises the question: would not this statement still be true even if Jesus had not raised Lazarus from the dead? While the human conception of death is the end, the Christian conception of death is merely another stop along the way of the eternal life. In this way, for the Christian, death is nothing to fear. The true "Sickness unto Death," which does not describe physical but spiritual death, is something to fear according to Anti-Climacus. This sickness unto death is what Kierkegaard calls despair. According to Kierkegaard, an individual is "in despair" if he does not align himself with God or God''s plan for the self. In this way he loses his self, which Kierkegaard defines as the "relation''s relating itself to itself in the relation." Kierkegaard defines humanity as the tension between the "finite and infinite", and the "possible and the necessary", and is identifiable with the dialectical balancing act between these opposing features, the relation. While humans are inherently reflective and self-conscious beings, to become a true self one must not only be conscious of the self but also be conscious of being aligned with a higher purpose, viz God''s plan for the Self. When one either denies this Self or the power that creates and sustains this Self, one is in despair. There are three kinds of despair presented in the book: being unconscious in despair of having a self, not wanting in despair to be oneself, and wanting in despair to be oneself. The first of these is described as "inauthentic despair," because this despair is born out of ignorance. In this state one is unaware that one has a self separate from its finite reality. One does not realize that there is a God, and accepts finitude because one is unaware of possibility of being more inherent in selfhood. The second type of despair is refusing to accept the self outside of immediacy; only defining the self by immediate, finite terms. This is the state in which one realizes that one has a self, but wishes to lose this painful awareness by arranging one''s finite life so as to make the realization unnecessary. This stage is loosely comparable to Sartre''s bad faith. The third type is awareness of the Self but refusal to submit to the will of God. In this stage, one accepts the eternal and may or may not acknowledge the creator, but refuses to accept an aspect of the Self that one in reality is, that is to say, the Self that one has been created to be. To not be in despair is to have reconciled the finite with the infinite, to exist in awareness of one''s own self and of God. Specifically, Kierkegaard defines the opposite of despair as faith, which he describes by the following: "In relating itself to itself, and in willing to be itself, the self rests transparently in the power that established it."

The Sickness Unto Death

Irith Hardey''s life is out of control. The world''s climate is in chaos. Rising seas have flooded out half a billion people. Hundreds of millions of refugees are pouring into the west, the global economy is collapsing and democracies are being crushed by the anti-refugee Yellow Armbands. But there is worse to come. In a desperate attempt to avert the coming ice age that will wipe out civilisation, the Great Powers have agreed to embark on the most monumental gamble of all time 100 Days to Save the World. Climate scientist Irith Hardey is sure they''ve got it wrong. The U.S. President''s pet scheme isn''t going to save the world, but ruin it. Searching for the awful truth behind the 100 Days project, Irith is tormented by the Yellow Armbands, then hunted from blizzard-struck London to the Scottish Highlands and across the wild North Sea. In a United States terrorized by gun-toting militias trying to bring down the President, Irith is forced to confront the worst nightmare any 21st-century woman can face, as she struggles to uncover the ghastly secret of the Life Lottery before 100 days are up.

The Life Lottery

On a special mission for the Ranger Corps, Will, his friend Horace, and the Ranger Gilan travel to Celtica, a neighbouring country to Araluen . They discover that all the people are gone. Will and Horace wonder if all the villagers have been slain or captured, but Gilan believes that the evil Lord Morgarath devised a plan to cross the mountain pass. If that were true, and the King wasn''t warned, the country would be destroyed. Gilan rides to warn King Duncan, and Will and Horace begin to follow a straggling Wargal force. On their way, they come across a girl named Evanlyn, who claims to be a maid to a lady of the Araluan court, but is actually the Princess herself. When the three of them follow the Wargals they discover that a gargantuan bridge is in the process of being built across The Fissure for their war party to cross. They also discover that the King''s army will be trapped on the Plains of Uthal, because the plans that Halt captured were merely a ruse. Will burns the bridge with Evanlyn''s help. Will and Evanlyn are taken captive by a group of Skandians ruled by Jarl Erak. Horace was able to escape. After, he tells the King and his aides about what is going to happen, the army starts to get prepared for the army that is supposed to attack them from behind, Halt is sent to take care of them with a force of cavalry and archer units (an archer and pikeman). In the middle of the battle, Morgarath calls a truce and challenges Halt to a duel, but Duncan forbids it. Then, unexpectedly, Horace challenges Morgarath to single combat. About to be defeated by Morgarath, Horace then, in a last-ditch attempt to win the battle, throws himself into the path of the battlehorse, in order to throw it off-balance. He is successful, but only manages to wind Morgarath. Morgarath is confident that he is going to win by a last powerful stroke of his broadsword, but Horace blocks it with the double-knife defence that Gilan taught Will and stabs Morgarath to win the battle. The Wargals become harmless as soon as Morgarath dies and the mind domination is broken. The Skandians escape with Will and Evanlyn. Halt tries to rescue them by launching a one-man assault, but it was too late. Halt promises to rescue Will.

The Burning Bridge

A king, driven from his capital by an emperor, was forming an army and demanded that one person from every noble household become a soldier or, face a heavy fine. An impoverished nobleman, too old to serve himself, with three daughters was distressed by this news. His oldest daughter offered to go and was equipped. She told a shepherdess whose sheep were in the ditch, that she pitied her. The shepherdess thanked the daughter calling her a "beautiful girl." Ashamed that she could be recognized so easily, the oldest daughter went home. The second daughter also set out. She scorned the shepherdess for her folly, but the shepherdess bid farewell to the "lovely girl." The second daughter also returned home. The youngest, Belle-Belle, set out. She helped the shepherdess. The shepherdess, a fairy, told her that she had punished her sisters for their lack of helpfulness and stopped them from their mission. She gave Belle-Belle a new horse and equipment, including a magical chest that would appear and disappear. The horse would be able to advise her. The fairy told the girl to call herself Fortuné. The youngest daughter, now called Fortune, set out and reached a city. There she wanted to send gold back from the chest, but when she discovered that she had lost the key, the horse told her how to open the chest. She sent back gold and jewels, but as soon as her sisters touched some, the jewels became glass and the gold turned into counterfeit coins; they told their father to keep the rest safe. Fortuné went to join the king. At the horse''s advice, she met a woodcutter who cut down an enormous number of trees, and took him into her service. Then she did the same with a man who tied up one foot to hunt, so there would be some chance of his prey escaping, then a man who put a bandage over his eyes so that he would not shoot everything, a man who could hear everything on the earth, a man who blew hard enough to move windmills (and if he stood too close, knock them over), a man who could drink a lake, and a man who could eat an enormous amount of bread. She asked them to keep their abilities secret. Fortune met the king and queen-dowager, his sister-in-law, who made her welcome. The queen found the knight attractive, and Fortuné found the king attractive. Many ladies also paid her attentions, greatly to her embarrassment. A lady-in-waiting, Florida, whom the queen sent to woo the knight on her behalf, was so in love with Fortuné that she defamed the queen instead. The queen managed to question Fortuné and learn that "he" was not in love, though he sang love songs after the custom of the land, but eventually grew so displeased with his refusal that when news of a dragon came, she told the king that Fortuné had begged leave to be dispatched against it. When the king summoned him, rather than denounce the queen, Fortuné went. The man with the super hearing, heard the dragon coming. At the horse''s advice, he had the drinker drink a lake, the strong woodcutter fill it with wine and spices that would make the dragon thirsty, and had all the peasants hide in their houses. The dragon drank and grew drunk. Fortuné attacked and killed it. The king was pleased, but the queen was still displeased with Fortuné. She told the king that he had said he could win back the treasure that the emperor had taken, without any army. Fortuné went with his men, and the emperor said he could have back the treasure only if one man could eat up all the fresh bread in the city. The glutton ate it all. The emperor added that one man must drain all the fountains, reservoirs, and aqueducts, and all the wine-cellars. The drinker did so. The emperor''s daughter suggested a race against her, and shared with the fleet-footed hunter the cordial she used, but it put him to sleep. The man who could hear heard him snoring; the sharp-eyed man shot and waked him, and he won the race. The emperor said he could carry away only what one man could carry, and the strong woodcutter carried off everything he owned. They came to a river while they were leaving, the drinker drank it so they could pass. The emperor sent men after them, but the man who powered windmills sanks their boats. The servants began to quarrel over their reward, but Fortuné declared that the king would decide their reward, and they submitted themselves to him. The king was pleased. The queen made an open declaration to Fortuné. When Fortuné refused her, she attacked him and herself and called for help, saying that he had attacked her and her injuries stemmed from her resistance. Fortuné was sentenced to be stabbed to death, but taking off the clothing revealed that she was a woman. The king married her.

Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné

Farmer Giles (Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo, "Giles Bronze-beard Julius Farmer of Ham") is not a hero. He is fat and red-bearded and enjoys a slow, comfortable life. But a rather deaf and short-sighted giant blunders on to his land, and Giles manages to ward him away with a blunderbuss shot in his general direction. The people of the village cheer: Farmer Giles has become a hero. His reputation spreads across the kingdom, and he is rewarded by the King with a sword named Caudimordax ("Tailbiter")—which turns out to be a powerful weapon against dragons. The giant, on returning home, relates to his friends that there are no more knights in the Middle Kingdom, just stinging flies—actually the scrap metal shot from the blunderbuss—and this entices a dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him. The story parodies the great dragon-slaying traditions. The knights sent by the King to pursue the dragon are useless fops, more intent on "precedence and etiquette" than on the huge dragon footprints littering the landscape. The only part of a ''dragon'' they know is the annual celebratory dragon-tail cake. Giles by contrast clearly recognizes the danger, and resents being sent along to face it. But hapless farmers can be forced to become heroes, and Giles shrewdly makes the best of the situation.

Farmer Giles of Ham

The story focuses on the battle fought in East Africa between British and German forces during World War I, and how it affects several individual people whose paths will eventually converge. The first character introduced is Walter Smith, an American expatriate farm owner/mechanic/engineer who runs a successful sisal plantation in British East Africa near Mount Kilimanjaro. Before war breaks out in August 1914, Smith is on cordial terms with his German half-English neighbour, Erich von Bishop. Smith even shops for coffee plant seedlings at the botanical garden in the capital of German East Africa, Dar es Salaam. Major von Bishop burns Smith''s sisal and linseed plantation in the opening campaign of the Great War, and then dismantles the massive Decorticator, the industrial centrepiece of Smith''s sisal farm operations. Now made a penniless refugee, and unable to secure any war reparations from the colonial British bureaucracy, Smith parks his wife and children with his missionary father-in-law and joins the British military forces in Nairobi, pursuing personal vengeance against von Bishop over the next four years of war in East Africa. The second narrative strand involves Felix Cobb, the studious youngest son of an aristocratic and traditional British military family, everyone of whom he despises apart from his older brother Gabriel, a captain. The latter soon marries his sweetheart Charis (inspiring a certain jealousy in Felix), but World War I breaks out while Gabriel is on his honeymoon in Normandy, and he makes haste back to his regiment. Gabriel is posted to Africa, where he befriends psychotic fellow soldier Bilderbeck and is quickly wounded by German soldiers. Whilst recovering in a POW hospital, he develops an infatuation for Erich von Bishop''s plump, stubborn wife Liesl, who works there as a nurse... The novel could be considered a satire on the ineptitude of authority in wartime. A recurring character, English District Officer Wheech-Browning, spreads chaos wherever he goes, such that Smith observes that every time he goes somewhere with Wheech-Browning, someone in their company meets an unfortunate death.

An Ice-Cream War

Following the conclusion of Debt of Honor, Jack Ryan is sworn in as president of the United States minutes after becoming Vice President. With virtually nearly every executive, legislative, and judicial figure deceased, Ryan is left to represent the United States by himself. Ryan deals with various hardships and crises, from reconstituting the House and the Senate; to a challenge on his legitimacy by former vice president Ed Kealty; to a brewing war in the Middle East. When the president of Iraq is assassinated by an Iranian agent, the Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei takes advantage of the power vacuum by launching an unopposed invasion of Iraq. The ayatollah unites the two countries into the United Islamic Republic (UIR). With Indian and Chinese assistance, the UIR makes a bid for superpower status by attacking Saudi Arabia. Following a series of Iranian-backed terrorist attacks&mdash;including the release of a genetically-enhanced Ebola strain&mdash;the UIR declares war on both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Meanwhile, China "accidentally" shoots down a Taiwanese airliner. As a result of the Ebola attack, Ryan declares martial law and enforces travel restrictions in an effort to contain the virus. However, the attack becomes only a limited success for the UIR, since the virus is so deadly that it cannot spread effectively. The tide soon turns against the UIR, with its forces being defeated against the combined firepower of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. President Ryan sends Ding Chavez and John Clark into the UIR to assassinate Daryaei. After showing the destruction of Daryaei''s residence during a televised press conference, Ryan threatens to launch a tactical nuclear strike on Tehran unless those responsible for the attacks are extradited to the U.S. to face charges. Kealty''s challenge to President Ryan''s legitimacy fails in court. In the aftermath of the crisis, appreciation of the unelected president grows. Then in answering a question from a reporter in the White House press room, Ryan says he will seek election to the office of President of the United States.

Executive Orders

Pharaoh is an Egyptian-styled adventure that includes a pyramid map and a trap-filled maze. In Pharaoh, the player characters (PCs) are driven into the desert for a crime they did not commit. The characters journey to the sunken city of Pazar, and from there they travel to the haunted tomb of an ancient pharaoh. While in the desert, the characters encounter the spirit of Amun-Re, a pharaoh, cursed to wander the desert until his tomb is robbed. Amun-Re begs the PCs to remove his staff of ruling and Star Gem from his tomb to break his curse. The tomb was built to be thief-proof, and has so far lived up to its reputation. While in Amun-Re''s pyramid, the characters can use an item called the dome of flight to control or reverse gravity; carelessness can cause them to fall upwards, and the palm trees in this room bear exploding fruit. The characters also encounter a maze within which are many traps. The module contains wilderness maps, and includes a number of smaller adventures which complement the main one. In Oasis of the White Palm, the PCs arrive at the Oasis of the White Palm, which is on the brink of turmoil. Shadalah, who is to be the bride of the sheikh''s eldest son, has been kidnapped. The sheikh believes her to be held by his enemies somewhere in the oasis. The Oasis of the White Palm module contains wilderness maps, and includes a number of smaller adventures which complement the main one. The goal of the PCs is the tomb of the millennium-dead wizard Martek.

Lost Tomb of Martek

The story, set in the small town of Huntington near Minneapolis, Minnesota, centers around a fifth grader named Jack Rankin Jr. who, while the new middle school is being built for the town, finds himself going to school in the old high school, where his father works as a janitor. After being ridiculed for wanting to be a janitor "like his dad" several years ago, he has tried to separate himself from his father as much as he can, but now finds these attempts futile since they are now in the same building. In order to let out his frustration, he concocts a plan to stick a large wad of gum to the bottom of a desk for his father to later clean up. Unfortunately, his plan backfires, and he is sentenced to three weeks of cleaning gum off of the bottom of desks and chairs in different parts of the school, for one hour every day. Jack is enraged by this punishment, since he will now be working for his father, but still manages to make some interesting discoveries: he finds a picture of his dad, another janitor, and two other men during their time in the army, and finds the key box for the building. Intrigued, he takes a key to the school bell tower, and another for the steam tunnel beneath the school. After his exploration of the bell tower, he realizes that he must, to his disappointment, drive home with his father. During the ride home, Jack''s dad reveals that before his days as a janitor, he worked for his father at an old car dealership, and absolutely loathed it. He tells Jack that his grandfather would never let John have his own car, and that in anger he stole his father''s corvette, only to completely destroy it in a crash with a light pole. In the hospital, John''s father told him that he could forget about college until he paid off the price of the car in work, and so John joined the army the next day. John finishes his story by saying that at his father''s funeral; several people approached John and mentioned how his father would always give away a couple of cars every year, free of charge, to help people. He tells Jack that the reason John never got a car was because his father loved him and didn''t want him to be spoiled. Astounded by this revelation, Jack must nevertheless continue cleaning gum off different parts of the school, and while cleaning the auditorium he discovers the access door to the steam tunnel. Feeling courageous at first, Jack still ends up locking himself in the tunnel, and must follow his keen sense of smell to get out. As he reaches the final crossroads, he finds that a tiny "apartment" has been set up. Jack also finds that a boy named Eddie is currently staying there while his father tries to recover from his days in the Vietnam War, which he spent with Jack''s father. Emerging from the tunnels in the town''s fire station, Jack manages to catch a ride home with his dad, who explains to him that the little living area beneath the town was set up to give people a place to go, like Eddie. After the Vietnam War, John was completely out of it until a janitor at the high school offered him a job in order to get back on his feet. In turn, John put together the living area under the crossroads to help others. The first "resident" happened one of John''s fellow janitors, Lou, who John met during his second tour during the war. Eventually, Lou moved out of the tunnels, but the furniture was left in the tunnels in case somebody else ever needed them. Touched by his father''s kindness, and the kindness of those his father knew, Jack receives a newer, kinder image of his father, and the bond between them begins to grow closer.

The Janitor''s Boy

The Antichrist has assembled the armies of the world in the Valley of Megiddo for what he believes will be his ultimate triumph of the ages. With a victory here, he would ascend to the throne of God. The Tribulation Force has migrated to the Middle East, most ensconced at Petra with the Jewish Remnant, now more than a million strong. Petra is surrounded by the Unity Army, poised to destroy all that is left of God''s people and usher in Nicolae Carpathia''s new world order. The world holds its breath as the greatest military battle to ever take place threatens to obliterate all that remains of humanity. All seems lost. Tsion Ben-Judah and Buck Williams have been slain in Jerusalem, now overrun by Global Community forces. The hour of attack for Nicolae Carpathia’s Global Community Unity Army to assault the Rebels at the Temple Mount draws near. The seventh and final Bowl Judgement comes in the form of the greatest earthquake ever measured, followed by a rain of hailstones. Rayford Steele is the only original member of the Tribulation Force alive, and he''s severely injured and on the brink of death. The sign of the Son of Man, a large Cross of lightning, appears over the global skyline for the whole world to witness. In addition, people who were sick and disabled were healed, and those who were formerly undecided were on their knees crying out for God to save them. This does not dissuade the enemies of God, as the Unity Army, led by Antichrist himself, makes their final charge against Petra, seeking to annihilate all remaining rebels to the Global Community. But suddenly, when all seems lost, the entire planet is covered in shadowless light and Jesus Christ returns to Earth in power and glory followed by the armies of heaven, slaying the armies of the Global Community with the Word of God in the four final battles of the Apocalypse, leading to a final confrontation with Antichrist in Jerusalem. Once the Global Unity Army has been destroyed, Jesus Christ sets foot on the Mount of Olives and sets up his kingdom in Jerusalem, where he proceeds to sentence The Beast (Bible) (Nicolae Carpathia) and his False Prophet (Leon Fortunato) to eternity in the lake of fire for the atrocities they committed against the entire world. Thereafter, Christ condemns Lucifer to 1,000 years in the abyss. In the newly formed Valley of Jehosaphat, Jesus condemns the last of the unbelievers and those who received the Mark of the Beast, cleansing the world for the beginning of his thousand-year reign. Those who were Raptured or martyred return to Earth to be reunited with their loved ones, and Paradise is ushered in. Believers from all over the world finally reunite in Jerusalem after the long seven years of the Tribulation and welcome the dawn of the Millennium World.

Glorious Appearing

Orosa-Nakpil Malate is a gay themed story that revolves around a University of the Philippines, Manila Intarmed freshman by the name of John David “Dave” de Jesus who looked for fun but found love and life in the liberated world of Orosa-Nakpil streets in Malate, Manila. Dana, his Intarmed classmate and his best friend, served as his “fairy godmother” while he goes on his sexcapades in Malate. She kept him strong at and stayed at his side during his toughest times at school and in love and turned him from an innocent rural gay into an outgoing urban gay hottie. In Orosa-Nakpil, Malate, he met not only the men who spent steamy nights with him in the dark room on the second floor of Barn bar, but also the men who changed his life forever. The complexity of the story started from a high school rivalry between Dave and Michael that turned into a bitter revenge against the former. He fell in love with a guy, who turned out to be part of the big plan against him and broke his heart - big time. Another guy, who he thought he could trust, destroyed his dignity in the dark premises of a campus comfort room and was framed as the sinner - the unfaithful cock sucker. Then he met Ross, the guy who made him fall in love like he never did. He never felt more special. But then, a painful event took them apart. Ross gave him a stethoscope before he bid goodbye. Dave then, slowly and surely but not completely, moved on and became successful in his studies. He graduated with flying colors and became a doctor. Then an unexpected encounter presented shocking revelations to Dave that made everything clear to him. Why he was raped, why Ross left, why a hundred crumpled fliers containing libelous information flew towards Dave at the Barn bar 6 years ago, why Ross did something Dave never thought he could. He knew why - he knew that it was because of revenge, HIV-AIDS, and Ross’ incomparable love for Dave. Orosa-Nakpil Malate, is a story of love, hate and hope; of family, friendship and rivalry, sending great awareness about HIV-AIDS, how brutal and merciless but life-changing it is, and most especially, how to prevent yourself from being infected.

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The Master

By Colm Tóibín

The Sickness Unto Death

By Søren Kierkegaard

The Life Lottery

By Ian Irvine

The Burning Bridge

By John Flanagan

Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné

No Author Listed

Farmer Giles of Ham

By J. R. R. Tolkien

An Ice-Cream War

By William Boyd

Executive Orders

By Tom Clancy

Lost Tomb of Martek

By Tracy Hickman

The Janitor's Boy

By Andrew Clements

Glorious Appearing

By Jerry B. Jenkins

Orosa-Nakpil, Malate

By Louie Mar Gangcuangco