Joe Leland, a private detective, begins investigating a case for the recently widowed Norma MacIver. Norma requests that Leland find out everything he can about her deceased husband. Norma requests Leland personally because her husband had mentioned knowing him in the past. It turns out that Leland and Colin MacIver served in the same military unit during World War II, but at different times. Leland interviews Colin''s first wife, his mother and the security guards at the track where Colin supposedly killed himself. Norma introduces Leland to her neighbor and former therapist, Dr. Wendell Roberts. During their conversation Wendell reveals that he knew Leland''s wife. It turns out Wendell was friends with the man with whom Karen Leland had had an affair. As Leland''s investigation deepens he uncovers evidence of corruption and murder. Eventually, Leland discovers that Colin was connected to a homicide during Leland''s earlier life with the police department as a detective. During the investigation of Teddy Leikman''s death a confession was obtained from Felix Tesla, Leikman''s roommate. Tesla was subsequently executed by electric chair. It turned out that Colin MacIver was the true murderer. Joe''s partner, Mike Petrakis, managed to decipher Colin''s coded notes and reveal a paper trail of corruption.

The Detective

Towards the end of the year 1975, five students have been visiting a deserted barn in the woods of San Francisco as a place to take drugs and have sex. On Christmas Eve, a young boy is abducted from his sister and parents and dismembered body parts are also found near the woods. The kidnapper and murderer is Michael Quinn, one of the students who now frequents the barn. He is strongly obsessed with LSD, quantum physics and the ideas of Schrödinger''s cat, which he uses to justify his actions. Fellow student Hal Jamieson finds himself trying to get himself out of the police net that will inevitably close around them, and involves Paul Dunsany, a kind hearted musician who fails to realise the monstrous acts evolving around him. All escape but Quinn, who is incarcerated for 20 years for murder, kidnapping and ransom. The missing child is never found. Towards the end of 1995, Paul Dunsany has grown up in Seattle, as professional musician and owner of a recording studio. He meets a mysterious woman by the name of Joni, who begins to probe him about his past. Hal Jamieson is a rich and successful software mogul, living also in Washington. He is married to Louise, one of the original five. Upon hearing of Quinn''s release from prison, he decides to have Quinn taken into solitary ''care'', for fear that he could incriminate the rest of them about what happened in early 1976. As Jamieson tries his best to reunite the original five and use his wealth to take care of the situation, he finds Dunsany cannot remember much of what happened, and the fifth person, a girl by the name of Mouse, is of unknown whereabouts. There is also the problem of the inquisitive woman, looking for the answer to what happened to the missing child. Quinn is older now, and has contracted HIV. But he still possesses the view of the world he gained from LSD, and is still very dangerous. Wishing for freedom, he plans his escape from the woodland house Jamieson has him forced to live in.

Epiphany

Roy Case, an ex-Royal Air Force military transport makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo flights around the Mediterranean in an old Beechcraft Queen Air. His dreams of having his own airplane and own charter company rapidly fading due to age and lack of money, but at least he is flying. However, conditions rapidly spiral out of control when he lands in Cyprus. Not only did his employers go bankrupt, leaving him stranded and without pay, but his plane is impounded, he is mugged by mysterious assailants on a dark back street, and is trailed by an Israeli Mossad agent. When he finds that the cases clearly marked “champagne” that he was supposed to be flying to Lebanon contain machine guns instead, he suspects that things are going to get a lot worse. When Case''s friend Cavitt shows up, fresh from an Israeli prison, together with a mysterious Austrian archaeologist and his even more mysterious daughter, the plot thickens with hidden Crusader treasure, Lebanese gangsters, betrayal and murder.

Judas Country

Freddy was an intelligent pig that lived on the Bean Farm. To avoid the cold winter at their farm in Upstate New York, the animals decided to vacation in Florida. At first Charles the rooster is prevented from joining them by his acerbic wife, Henrietta. The animals encounter a man and a boy who wished to capture them. The animals scared them off. Later, Charles and Henrietta joined the group again. They also met the man and the boy, with the same results as last time. The animals were also joined by the man''s black dog, Jack. They next passed through Washington, D.C where three senators took them on a tour of the city. At the end of the tour, one of the senators made a speech how pleased he was by the animals'' visit. A few days later, while walking towards Florida, a thunderstorm forced the animals to take refuge in an empty log house. A flock of swallows mention a pile of gold in the area. The animals found the gold but were unable to take it with them, because they couldn''t carry it. After meeting two men who tried to capture Hank, the old horse, and Mrs. Wiggins, a cow, the animals arrived at Florida only to get trapped on an island in a swamp by some alligators. After they escaped the alligators, the farm animals started the long trek northward. Their further adventures included disguising themselves to get past the two kidnappers, returning stolen property to some townspeople, taking the pile of gold with them on an old carriage, and taking the gold back from the man and the boy who tried to steal it before they got back to the Bean farm. Once they got to the farm, they showed Mr. and Mrs. Bean the gold and they all danced merrily.

Freddy Goes to Florida

Although Lissar is the daughter of the most beautiful queen and most handsome king in all the land, she is a lonely child whose only true companion is her dog, Ash. She is mostly ignored during her childhood due to the fact that her parents were the two most splendid people in all the seven kingdoms. Lissar''s mother falls ill and starts to lose her beauty. This causes her to lose her will to live, because she wants to be remembered as the most beautiful person, and nothing less. She sends for artists from all the kingdoms, and eventually one is chosen to paint a portrait of her as she was before her illness. He works nonstop, as if driven, for a fortnight until the painting is completed and shown to the queen. After looking at the painting, she forces the king to swear that he will only remarry if he can find a bride more beautiful than she, and after he acquiesces, she dies. This seemingly impossible condition is not, however, insurmountable: as Lissar matures, she becomes not just very image of her mother, but more beautiful than her parents. The king becomes obsessed with his daughter, and insists that he will marry her. Lissar refuses him and locks herself in a room. Eventually the king finds a way into the room and rapes Lissar and almost kills Ash. Lissar and Ash escape from the king and find their way to a cabin in the mountains. Lissar, impregnated by her father the king, miscarries and nearly dies. Lissar is saved by a moon goddess, who gives her a white deerskin dress (referenced in the title) and alters both Lissar and Ash so that they are unrecognizable; Lissar''s hair changes from black to white, and Ash grows a coat similar to that of a borzoi. As another gift the goddess gives Lissar time to heal and makes her forget what happened to her. Lissar travels to a different kingdom and offers to work for the king. The prince, Ossin, assigns her to raise a litter of puppies whose mother had died. The goddess''s alterations, however, were more than physical. Lissar, now identified as Deerskin, discovers that she has supernatural powers, including the ability to find lost children and objects. She falls in love with Ossin and he with her, but, still burdened by her past, she flees when Ossin proposes to her at a ball and returns to the cabin in the mountains with Ash and the puppies. After spending the winter recovering, Deerskin feels compelled to return to Ossin''s city, following an urgent call. As she nears the city, she hears about a wedding and assumes that it is Ossin''s. She realizes to her horror that the king, her father, is going to marry Ossin''s younger sister. Deerskin reveals her true identity as the bridegroom''s daughter and calls her father to account for his actions, using the goddess''s powers to punish him for his crimes. Confronting her father finally frees Lissar to accept Ossin''s love. The story ends with Lissar tentatively coming back to Ossin''s arms, offering to give their relationship a chance.

Deerskin

At the top of Mount Munch, lives a group of people known as the Hyups. One of their numbers, a Munchkin named Bini Aru, discovered a method of transforming people and objects by merely saying the word "Pyrzqxgl". After Princess Ozma decreed that no one could practice magic in Oz except for Glinda the Good Witch and the Wizard of Oz, Bini wrote down the directions for pronouncing "Pyrzqxgl" and hid them in his magical laboratory. When Bini and his wife are at a fair one day, their son Kiki Aru, who thirsts for adventure, finds the directions and afterwards transforms himself into a hawk and visits various countries outside the land of Oz. When he alights in the land of Ev, Kiki Aru learns that he needs money to pay for a night''s lodging (versus Oz, where money is not used at all) and changes himself into a magpie to steal a gold piece from an old man. A sparrow confronts the then-human Kiki Aru with knowledge of the theft, and Kiki says that he did not know what it was like to be wicked before, he is glad that he is now. This conversation is overheard by Ruggedo, the Nome who was exiled to the Earth''s surface in Tik-Tok of Oz, and he sees through Kiki Aru''s power a chance to get revenge on the people of Oz. Kiki changes himself and Ruggedo into birds and they fly over the Deadly Desert into the Land of Oz. They enter Oz as animals to escape detection by Glinda and to recruit an army of conquest from the country''s wild animal population. When they first appear in the Forest of Gugu in the Gillikin Country, Kiki changes himself and Ruggedo into Li-Mon-Eags (fictional creatures with the heads of lions, the bodies of monkeys, and the wings of eagles as well as having the tails of donkeys) and lies that they''ve seen the people of the Emerald City plan to enslave the animal inhabitants of the Forest. Ruggedo claims that they the Li-Mon-Eags will transform the animals into humans and march on the Emerald City and transform its inhabitants into animals, driving them into the forest. Ruggedo proves their power (for Kiki''s the only one who knows "Pyrzqxgl") by having Kiki transform one of the leopard king Gugu''s advisors, Loo the unicorn, into a man and back again. Gugu offers to meet with the leaders of the other animal tribes to decide on this matter of invasion. Dorothy and the Wizard arrive with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger in the Forest of Gugu during this council of war with a request for monkeys to train in time for Ozma''s upcoming birthday party. Ruggedo recognizes his old enemies and inspires Kiki to begin transforming people and animals left and right &mdash; including Ruggedo, whom Kiki turns against by transforming him into a goose, a transformation that the Nomes most fears because as a goose he might lay an egg. The Wizard, whom Kiki transformed into a fox, follows the Li-Mon-Eag with his magic bag, the transformed Kiki, deep into the forest where he begins transforming monkeys into giant human soldiers. However, Kiki makes them so big that they cannot move through the trees. The Wizard, however, heard how to correctly pronounce "Pyrzqxgl" and first stops Kiki and Ruggedo by transforming them into a walnut and a hickory nut. Then the Wizard resumes his rightful form and changes Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, and Gugu back to their forms, and he agrees to change the soldiers back into monkeys. The Wizard recruits several of the grateful monkeys and shrinks them down to bring back to the Emerald City and train. On arriving there, Dorothy and the Wizard are dispatched to a magic island where Cap''n Bill and Trot went to get a magic flower for Ozma''s birthday. However, the island itself causes anything living that touches it to take root there, and that is how the sailor and his friend are found when Dorothy and the Wizard arrive. The Wizard uses "Pyrzqxgl" to change Cap''n Bill and Trot into honeybees which narrowly avoid being eaten by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. When they are human again, Cap''n Bill retrieves the flower by strapping a wood plank onto his good leg, walks with that and his wooden leg onto the island, and retrieves the flower. Back at the Emerald City, Ozma and her friends celebrate her birthday (though without quite the pomp and fanfare from The Road to Oz) and then decide how to deal with the evil magicians transformed into nuts. The Wizard uses "Pyrzqxgl" to change them back to Kiki Aru and Ruggedo and make them thirsty enough to drink the Water of Oblivion, which will make them forget all that they have ever known. The now-blank slate Kiki Aru and Ruggedo will live in the Emerald City and learn to be good and kind.

The Magic of Oz

The story begins with Karl''s violent arrival in the Holy Land of AD 28, where his time machine, a womblike, fluid-filled sphere, cracks open and becomes useless. By interpolating numerous memories and flashbacks, Moorcock tells the parallel story of Karl''s troubled past in 20th century London, and tries to explain why he''s willing to risk everything to meet Jesus. We learn that Karl has chronic problems with women, homosexual tendencies, an interest in the ideas of Jung, and many neuroses, including a messiah complex. Karl, badly injured during his journey, crawls halfway out of the time machine, then faints. John the Baptist and a group of Essenes find him there, and take him back to their community, where they care for him for some time. Since the Essenes witnessed his miraculous arrival in the time machine, John decides Karl must be a magus, and asks him to help lead a revolt against the occupying Romans. When he asks Karl to baptise him, however, the latter panics and flees into the desert, where he wanders alone, hallucinating from heat and thirst. He then makes his way to Nazareth in search of Jesus. When he finds Mary and Joseph, Mary turns out to be little more than a whore, and Joseph, a bitter old man, sneers openly at her claim to have been impregnated by an angel. Worse, their child Jesus is a profoundly retarded hunchback who incessantly repeats the only word he knows: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Karl, however, is so deeply committed to the idea of a real, historical Jesus that, at this point, he himself begins to step into the role, gathering followers, repeating what parables he can recall, and using psychological tricks to simulate miracles. When there''s no food, he shows the people how to pretend to eat to take their minds off their hunger; when he encounters illness caused by hysteria, he cures it. Gradually, it becomes known that his name is Jesus of Nazareth. In the end, determined to live the story of Jesus to its decidedly bitter end, he orders a puzzled Judas to betray him to the Romans, and dies on the cross. His last, agonized words, however, are not Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani, but the phonetically similar English it''s a lie....it''s a lie...let me down... After Karl''s death on the cross, the body is stolen by a doctor who believed the body had magical properties, leading to rumors that he did not die. The doctor is disappointed when the body begins to rot as any normal human would.

Behold the Man

When Cassie Dasent was a little girl, her grandmother would tell her of what became to her mother: she was taken by a polar bear king to be the daughter of the North Wind, who expected the girl to become the bear''s wife when she grows up. But one day, the North Wind''s daughter meets Cassie''s father and falls in love with him. When the polar bear king comes to get the woman, she refuses him but comes up with a bargain for him: if she has a daughter, the daughter will be his wife. He agrees and allows his would-be wife to marry the man she loves. The North Wind, furious at his adopted daughter, seeks her out, and when he finds her, she had given birth to a daughter (Cassie). Cassie''s mother begs for her father to take her and leave her husband and child alone, and the North Wind blew her far away, where she was captured by trolls. Years later, Cassie is eighteen, and she has accepted the story as a nice way of saying her mother had died. She lives at the Eastern Beaufort Research Center in Alaska with her father and fellow researchers Owen, Scott, Liam, Jeremy, and pilot Max. While out on the ice, Cassie spots a large polar bear, but when she plans on tranquilizing and tagging him, he vanishes into the ice. Upon telling her father Laszlo of this, he decides that she must go to live with her grandmother in Fairbanks. It turns out the story about her mother was true after all. Determined to find the bear and prove the story isn''t real, Cassie plans to go out after him, only to find that the bear had found her. He tells her to marry him in exchange for the release of her mother, who is alive. Cassie reluctantly agrees. The polar bear (who is referred to as "Bear") takes Cassie to his elaborate ice castle, where the latter learns that he is a "munaqsri," a transporter of souls. He is currently the only munaqsri for the polar bears, and tells Cassie that there must be more of their kind for everything to be in balance. That night, while Cassie is in bed, she is confronted by what she thinks is an intruder who tells her that he is Bear and adds that it is their wedding night. She chases him out, and upon finding out from Bear that the intruder was truly him, she finds out that they are to have children together. Though she initially plans on leaving, Cassie decides to stay, knowing that her father lied to her about her mother dying. Weeks later, the polar bear birth season arrives, and Cassie is left alone in the castle as Bear sets out with souls for the cubs. After a while Cassie grows bored and Bear allows her to visit her home again. Upon returning home, Cassie finally meets her mother Gail (short for Abigail), who is traumatized after all those years with the trolls. After spending only a few days there, Cassie returns to Bear with information on bear den sites she received from Owen. Also, she takes with her more gear than before, including birth control pills, which she uses on their wedding night. Despite this, Cassie winds up pregnant, realizing that Bear "magicked" her into becoming this (he referred to her use of the pills as a "chemical imbalance.") Feeling betrayed, Cassie waits until evening before turning on her flashlight and seeing his face. She discovers him in his human form, as a man with dark skin and white hair. Bear wakes up and sees what she is doing. He ends up having to be sent to marry the princess of the trolls; it was part of the bargain to release Cassie''s mother (Cassie must also not see his face whatsoever). He leaves Cassie alone. Cassie is determined to go out after him, despite her pregnancy.

What I Loved opens with a painting of a naked woman, with the artist''s shadow across the canvas. The protagonist, art historian Leon Hertzberg (Leo), purchases the painting and some time afterwards befriends the artist, Bill Wechsler. Bill is, at this stage, an unknown artist, though as the novel progresses, so too does his career in the New York art scene. This is in part due to Leo’s writing, which brings Bill''s work into the public eye. Bill is married to Lucille, a highly strung poet, and Leo is married to Erica, a literary academic. The two couples become close and move into the same apartment block. Erica and Lucille fall pregnant around the same time and have sons, Mathew and Mark. The first half of the novel explores their quiet, domestic lives, through the eyes of Leo. Lucille and Bill separate after he forms a relationship with Violet, the model who posed for the painting which opens the text. The opening of part Two of the novel is described by Robert Birnaum, in an interview with the author, as like a punch in the face and the pace of the novel accelerates after this point. Leo and Erica’s son, Mathew, dies suddenly. Grief-stricken, Leo eventually loses Erica, who moves away for distance as well as work. Leo forms a close relationship with Bill’s son Mark. Mark is, however, an insincere and somewhat amoral character, and a pattern is repeated between the two, of trust and betrayal, until Leo and the reader realise Mark is probably not capable of affection. Mark befriends performance and installation artist Teddy Giles, whose art is designed to shock, but seems empty and only designed to serve that one purpose. Bill eventually dies in his studio and Violet attempts to curtail her grief by cleaning manically. Leo becomes embroiled in a thriller-like plot attempting to track down Mark who has become lost in Teddy Giles''s scene. Leo finally professes his love for Violet. She tells him he can have her for one night, but that she’s then moving away. He declines and returns to his apartment alone. A minor character throughout the novel, Lazlo Finkelman, moves amongst similar circles to Teddy Giles and Mark, but with very different intentions and values. At the close of the novel, an aging Leo finds comfort in playing with Lazlo’s young son.

What I Loved

The author’s friend Jason Gridley is experimenting with a new radio frequency he dubs the Gridley Wave, via which he picks up a transmission sent by scientist Abner Perry, from the interior world of Pellucidar at the Earth''s core, a realm discovered by the latter and his friend David Innes many years before. There Innes and Perry have established an Empire of Pellucidar, actually a confederation of tribes, and attempted with mixed success to modernize the stone-age natives. Lately things have not gone well, and Innes is currently held captive in an enemy realm. Perry transmits a lengthy account of how this has come about, as reported by Innes’ native comrade in arms Tanar, and appeals for aid from the outer world. Tanar’s narrative comprises the bulk of the novel. Innes had led an army to the relief of the member tribe of Thuria and the remnants of the Empire’s former foes, the reptilian Mahars. Both had been attacked by a previously unknown people, the Korsars (corsairs), the scourge of the internal seas. These, it is eventually learned, are the descendants of outer world Moorish pirates who had penetrated Pellucidar centuries before through a natural polar opening connecting the outer and inner worlds. The empire’s forces succeed in repulsing the Korsars, but the raiders retain as hostage Tanar, son of Innes’ ally Ghak of Sari. They hope to trade him for the secret of the empire’s superior weaponry. Leaving his forces to construct ships to counter the enemy fleet, Innes and his comrade Ja of Anoroc set out alone to rescue Tanar, guided by their own prisoner, the Korsar Fitt. On the enemy flagship Tanar is interrogated by the Cid, leader of the Korsars, and his ugly henchman Bohar the Bloody. The young warrior also encounters Stellara, supposedly the Cid’s daughter, who attempts to intercede on behalf of Tanar and his fellow captives. A storm destroys the ship, and the crew takes to the lifeboats, leaving Tanar and Stellara adrift on the wreckage. Stellara confides to him that she is not really a Korsar, as her mother Allara was stolen by the Cid from the native island of Amiocap and she bears a birthmark proving she is actually the daughter of Fedol, her mother’s former mate. Eventually the derelict ship drifts to Amiocap itself, but the island’s suspicious inhabitants take the two for Korsar spies and imprison them in the village of Lar. Escaping, they by chance encounter Fedol, who recognizes Stellara by her birthmark and gives them refuge in his own village of Peraht. But Bohar’s group of Korsars attacks Peraht and kidnaps Stellara, while Tanar falls prey to the Coripies, a cannibalistic subterranean race. Escaping again, Tanar kills Bohar and frees Stellara, to whom he avows his love. Their joy is short-lived, as she is then abducted by Jude of the nearby island of Hime, who had shared Tanar’s captivity among the Coripies. Tanar pursues them to Hime, where they are overtaken by Bohar’s crew. Seeing Tanar with Gura, a girl of Hime who has developed a crush on him, Stellara rejects him and reassumes her former role among the Korsars; Tanar and Gura are taken in chains across the ocean to the Korsar city. There Tanar finds himself a fellow prisoner with David Innes and Ja of Anoroc, whose quest to succor him has miscarried. The three feign acquiescence to the Cid’s demand they manufacture modern firearms for him, and so are given greater liberty. Meanwhile Gura has discovered that Stellara, despite her jealous anger, still loves Tanar, and lets Tanar know. The party plans its escape and flees north with the reconciled Stellara. After confirming the existence of the polar opening they turn south again, bound for Sari, only to encounter a large party of pursuing Korsars, at which they split up in an attempt to ensure some at least can carry word back to the empire. Stellara, Tanar and Innes are recaptured, and the latter two each confined solitarily in lightless, snake-infested cells. Tanar, in his cell, eventually locates the opening through which the snakes enter, widens it, and achieves freedom. He locates Stellara in a heated faceoff with Bulf, the Korsar to whom the Cid has promised her; she swears to kill him and herself both rather than submit. Tanar intervenes and dispatches Bulf. He and his lover then leave the city in Korsar guise, and after many perils return to Sari, where they find Ja and Gura to have arrived safely as well. After hearing the complete transmission, Jason Gridley pledges to lead an expedition to Pellucidar through the polar opening and rescue David Innes, thus setting the stage for the sequel Tarzan at the Earth''s Core, a cross-over novel linking Burroughs’ Pellucidar and Tarzan series.

Tanar of Pellucidar

Barchester Towers concerns the leading clergy of the imaginary cathedral city of Barchester. The much loved bishop having died, all expectations are that his son, Archdeacon Grantly, will succeed him. Instead, owing to the passage of the power of patronage to a new Prime Minister, a newcomer, the far more Evangelical Bishop Proudie, gains the see. His wife, Mrs Proudie, exercises an undue influence over the new bishop, making herself as well as the bishop unpopular with most of the clergy of the diocese. Her interference to veto the reappointment of the universally popular Mr Septimus Harding (protagonist of Trollope''s earlier novel, The Warden) as warden of Hiram''s Hospital is not well received, even though she gives the position to a needy clergyman, Mr Quiverful, with 14 children to support. Even less popular than Mrs Proudie is the bishop''s newly appointed chaplain, the hypocritical and sycophantic Mr Obadiah Slope, who decides it would be expedient to marry Harding''s wealthy widowed daughter, Eleanor Bold, and hopes to win her favour by interfering in the controversy over the wardenship. The Bishop, or rather Mr Slope under the orders of Mrs Proudie, also orders the return of the prebendary Dr Vesey Stanhope from Italy. Dr Stanhope has been there, recovering from a sore throat, for 12 years and has spent his time catching butterflies. With him to the Cathedral Close come his wife and his three adult children. The younger of Dr Stanhope''s two daughters causes consternation in the Palace and threatens the plans of Mr Slope: Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni is a crippled serial flirt with a young daughter and a mysterious Italian husband whom she has left. Mrs Proudie is appalled by her and considers her an unsafe influence on her daughters, her servants and Mr Slope. Mr Slope is drawn like a moth to a flame and cannot keep away. Dr Stanhope''s son Bertie is skilled at spending money but not at making it: his two sisters think marriage to rich Eleanor Bold will provide financial security for him. Summoned by Archdeacon Grantly to assist in the war against the Proudies and Mr Slope is the brilliant Reverend Francis Arabin. Mr Arabin is a considerable scholar, Fellow of Lazarus College at Oxford, who nearly followed his mentor John Henry Newman into the Roman Catholic Church. A massive misunderstanding occurs between Eleanor and her father, brother-in-law, sister and Mr Arabin: they all believe she intends to marry the oily chaplain Mr Slope. Mr Arabin is attracted to Eleanor but the efforts of Grantly and his wife to stop her marrying Slope also interfere with any relationship that might develop. At the Ullathorne garden party of the Thornes, matters come to a head. Mr Slope proposes to Mrs Bold and is slapped for his presumption; Bertie goes through the motions of a proposal to Eleanor and is refused with good grace, and the Signora has a chat with Mr Arabin. Mr Slope''s double-dealings are now revealed and he is dismissed by Mrs Proudie and the Signora. The Signora drops a delicate word in several ears and with the removal of their misunderstanding Mr Arabin and Eleanor become engaged. The old Dean of the Cathedral having died, Mr Slope campaigns to become Dean, but Mr Harding is offered the preferment, with a beautiful house in the Close and of garden. However Mr Harding considers himself unsuitable and, with the help of the archdeacon, arranges that Mr Arabin be made Dean. With the Stanhopes'' return to Italy, life in the Cathedral Close returns to its previous quiet and settled ways and Mr Harding continues his life of gentleness and music.

Barchester Towers

The events of Au Bonheur des Dames cover approximately 1864-1869. The novel tells the story of Denise Baudu, a 20-year-old woman from Valognes who comes to Paris with her brothers and begins working at the department store Au Bonheur des Dames as a saleswoman. Zola describes the inner workings of the store from the employees'' perspective, including the 13-hour workdays, the substandard food and the bare lodgings (for the female staff). Many of the conflicts in the novel spring from the struggles for advancement and the malicious infighting and gossip among the staff. Denise''s story is played against the career of Octave Mouret, the owner of Au Bonheur des Dames, whose retail innovations and store expansions threaten the existence of all the neighborhood shops. Under one roof, Octave has gathered textiles (silks, woolens) as well as all manner of ready-made garments (dresses, coats, lingerie, gloves), accessories necessary for making clothes and ancillary items like carpeting and furniture. His aim is to overwhelm the senses of his female customers, forcing them to spend by bombarding them with an array of buying choices and by juxtaposing goods in enticing and intoxicating ways. Massive advertising, huge sales, home delivery, a system of refunds and novelties such as a reading room and a snack bar, further induce his female clientele to patronize his store in growing numbers. In the process, he drives smaller, speciality shops out of business. In Pot-Bouille, Octave is depicted as a (sometimes inept) ladies'' man who seduces or attempts to seduce women who can give him some type of material (social or financial) advantage. This characteristic is carried over in Au Bonheur des Dames. Here, he uses a young widow to influence a political figure (modeled after Baron Haussmann) in order to have frontage access to a huge thoroughfare (the present day rue de Quatre-Septembre) for the store. Despite his contempt for women, Octave finds himself slowly falling in love with Denise, whose inability to be seduced by his charms further inflames him. The book ends with Denise admitting her love for Octave. Her marriage with Octave is seen as a victory of women over a man who refuses to be conquered and whose aim is to subjugate and exploit women using their own senses.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Detective

By Roderick Thorp

Epiphany

By Simon Hawke

Judas Country

By Gavin Lyall

Freddy Goes to Florida

By Walter R. Brooks

Deerskin

By Robin McKinley

The Magic of Oz

By L. Frank Baum

Behold the Man

By Michael Moorcock

Ice

No Author Listed

What I Loved

By Siri Hustvedt

Tanar of Pellucidar

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Barchester Towers

By Anthony Trollope

Au Bonheur des Dames

By Émile Zola