The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, a village stonemason in the southern English region of Wessex who yearns to be a scholar at "Christminster", a city modeled on Oxford. In his spare time, while working in his aunt''s bakery, he teaches himself Greek and Latin. Before he can try to enter the university, the naïve Jude is manipulated, through a process he later calls erotolepsy, into marrying a rather coarse and superficial local girl, Arabella Donn, who deserts him within two years. By this time, he has abandoned the classics altogether. After Arabella leaves him, Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while studying alone, hoping to be able to enter the university later. There, he meets and falls in love with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. Jude shortly introduces Sue to his former schoolteacher, Mr. Phillotson, whom she later marries. Sue is satisfied by the normality of her married life, but quickly finds the relationship an unhappy one; in addition to being in love with Jude, not her husband, she is physically disgusted by her spouse, and, apparently, by sex in general. Sue eventually leaves Phillotson for Jude. Sue and Jude spend some time living together without any sexual relationship; they are both afraid to get married because their family has a history of tragic unions, and think that being legally bound to one another might destroy their love. Jude eventually convinces Sue to sleep with him and, over the years, they have two children together. They are also bestowed with a child "of an intelligent age" from Jude''s first marriage to Arabella, whom Jude did not know about earlier. He is named Jude and nicknamed "Little Father Time" because of his intense seriousness and moroseness. Jude and Sue are socially ostracized for living together unmarried, especially after the children are born. Jude''s employers always dismiss him when they find out, and landlords evict them. Their socially-disturbed boy, "Little Father Time," comes to believe that he and his half-siblings are the source of the family''s woes. He murders Sue''s two children and commits suicide by hanging. He leaves behind a note that simply reads, "Done because we are too menny." Shortly thereafter, Sue has a miscarriage. Beside herself with grief and blaming herself for "Little Father Time''s" actions, which were, in part, instigated by a conversation the two had had the previous night, Sue turns to the church that has ostracized her and comes to believe that the children''s deaths were divine retribution for her relationship with Jude. Although horrified at the thought of resuming her marriage with Phillotson, she becomes convinced that, for religious reasons, she should never have left him. Arabella discovers Sue''s feelings and informs Phillotson, who soon proposes they remarry. This results in Sue leaving Jude for Phillotson. Jude is devastated and remarries Arabella after she plies him with alcohol to once again trick him into marriage. After one final, desperate visit to Sue in freezing weather, Jude becomes seriously ill and dies within the year. It is revealed that Sue has grown "staid and worn" with Phillotson. Arabella fails to mourn Jude''s passing, instead setting the stage to ensnare her next suitor.

Jude the Obscure

Green Grass, Running Water opens with an unknown narrator explaining "the beginning," in which the trickster-god Coyote is present as well as the unknown narrator. Coyote has a dream which takes form and wakes Coyote up from his sleep. The dream thinks that it is very smart; indeed the dream thinks that it is god, but Coyote is only amused, labeling the dream as Dog, who gets everything backwards. Dog asks why there is water everywhere, surrounding the unknown narrator, Coyote, and him. At this, the unknown narrator begins to explain the escape of four Native American elders from a mental institution who are named Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye. The elders are each connected with a female character from native tradition: First Woman and the Lone Ranger, Changing Woman and Ishmael, Thought Woman and Robinson Crusoe, and Old Woman and Hawkeye. The book then divides into four main sections: each of these sections is the narration by one of the four elders. In addition to these four explaining the "ordinary" events, they also tell a creation story that accounts for why there is so much water; in each creation story, the four encounter a figure from the Bible, as well as the western literary figure from whom each derive his name. There are four major plot lines in the book. One of these follows the escape and travels of the elders and coyote who are out to fix the world. Dr Joseph Hovaugh and Babo, his assistant, try to track down the elders. Dr. Hovaugh keeps track of every time the elders have gone missing and he attributes major events like the eruption of Mount St Helens to their disappearances. The second plot line follows Lionel Red Dog, Charlie Looking Bear and Alberta. The third plot line follows Eli Stands Alone, Lionel''s uncle, who lives in his mother''s house in the spillway of the Balene Dam. The fourth plot line involves characters from Christian and Native American creation myths and traditions as well as literary and historical figures including Ahdamn, First Woman, the Young Man Who Walks on Water, Robinson Crusoe, Nasty Bumpo and so on. As the climax of the novel approaches, so does the traditional Blackfoot ceremony of the Sun Dance. Ultimately, the dam breaks due to an earthquake caused by Coyote''s singing and dancing. The flooding of water destroys Eli''s house, but also returning the waterway to its natural course. The novel concludes much as it began. The trickster-god Coyote and the unknown narrator are in an argument about what existed in the beginning. Coyote says nothing, but the unknown narrator says that there was water. Once again Coyote asks why there is water everywhere, and the unknown narrator says he will explain how it happened.

Green Grass, Running Water

The story revolves around the proposed construction of a motorway (M101 in the book and the M399 in the film) through Cleene Gorge in rural South Worfordshire (a fictional gorge in a fictional English county). At one end of the gorge is Handyman Hall, home to politician Sir Giles Lynchwood and his wife Lady Maud Lynchwood. Sir Giles is secretly in favour of ensuring the motorway passes through the Cleene Gorge as it will mean he will be paid the compensation for the destruction of Handyman Hall, which is under a covenant preventing its sale. While superficially pretending to be supportive he takes steps to undermine the inquiry and prevent alternatives being adopted, to ensure the new road travels through the Gorge. By contrast, Lady Maud''s family has lived in the gorge for over 500 years, and she is fiercely defensive of her heritage and expects Giles to support her. Matters are further complicated by their on-going marital problems, including Sir Giles''s fetishist infidelity and Lady Maud''s wish for children to continue her line (to which Sir Giles is opposed), and the actions of Maud''s gardener, Blott, a former German prisoner of war (it is a common misconception that Blott is Italian, however he was brought up in a Dresden Orphanage (where he learnt his skill in impersonation)), he does not know his parents (whom he believes might be Jewish) and served in the German Army. However the Army got fed up with Blott and so the High Command decided to get rid of him by assigning him to an Italian bomber on a raid to England. Blott, who served as navigator (and who wasn''t very good at it), got completely lost and was forced to bale out, whereupon he was captured, and he is strongly patriotic towards his new home nation and home. Maud''s and Giles''s marriage settlement leaves Giles with Handyman Hall in the event of a no-fault divorce but not in the event of death or infidelity, a situation he also seeks to provoke by refusing to co-operate in his marital duties and which Maud sees as a potential solution. With his military training, and some leftovers of the war found beneath the hall, Blott begins a covert campaign including blackmail and wire tapping to scrutinize Sir Giles''s activities on Maud''s behalf and to undermine the construction of the motorway. He also discovers and aims to foil Giles''s plans. In the course of the fight for the Gorge, the picturesque village is destroyed by Blott using a demolition crane to whip up popular opposition for the works. Giles is discovered seeing a prostitute and is blackmailed, as is Dundridge, the official in charge of the works, and the Hall is quickly converted into a wildlife park in an attempt to prevent the removal of its occupants. Giles himself is finally killed by lions when he is discovered by Blott and Maud trying to burn down the Hall. As a final resort, Blott concretes himself into his home, located in the entrance archway to the estate, preventing works progress. Dundridge, frustrated, demands the SAS are called in to remove Blott. Blott secretly launches an attack on his own archway for which the SAS are blamed, finally compelling enough public attention to cause the plans to be dropped. Dundridge is imprisoned for his part in the ''attack'', and Maud and Blott (who have fallen in love by this time) marry and state their intention to add to the Handyman family.

Blott on the Landscape

Squirrel is a stray puppy who lives in a shed behind the summer home of a wealthy family, The Merrions, with her mother, Stream and brother, Bone. When Stream disappears, Squirrel and Bone must set off on their own. The puppies are picked up by highway travelers, but then abandoned and thrown out of a car window while the travelers were at a mall the following day. Squirrel and Bone are injured; Bone is taken away by other shoppers, leaving Squirrel, never to be seen again. Squirrel joins forces with another female stray, Moon, for a short time. Later, after being attacked by stray dogs at a gas station and being with each other for some time, healing each others wounds, the pair are struck by a car, killing Moon instantly and injuring Squirrel. This time, Squirrel is taken to the vet, where she is spayed and her broken leg is treated. She is renamed Daisy and adopted by a family for the summer(Their summer dog). In the autumn, Squirrel is once more abandoned. She continues to wander for years. Then Squirrel, now an old dog, wanders around to an old lady''s house. Then the old woman, whose name is Susan, sees Squirrel and takes her in. At the end of the story, Susan, an old woman, finds Squirrel cold and starving in her backyard, and tries to coax her in. Susan had a dog named Maxie in the past. Squirrel, now an old lady herself, refuses to come over, and Susan has to gain her trust by leaving food out and gradually moving closer each day. When she finally gets Squirrel inside, she decides to keep her and renames Squirrel "Addie". Afterwards, Susan and Squirrel, both old ladies, enjoy the rest of their lives together. They lived happily ever after

A Dog''s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray

Chelsea''s parents don''t want their daughter to have a birthday party, because it will be too expensive. Chelsea becomes jealous of her siblings Geneva and Warwick, who receive more money from their parents. Chelsea befriends Bex in the Stomping Ground nightclub. A few weeks later, their friendship is cemented after Fee''s friend Eddie tries to assault Chelsea, and Bex comes to her aid. Barry Gee buys his own restaurant, which will be called Gee Zone. Jemma wants to be an actress, but her parents aren''t happy when she neglects her schoolwork to attend acting and dancing lessons. Jemma ignores them, and trusts Ms. Olivia Ockley, the owner of the acting school, who praises her talent. However, Jemma is annoyed when Alexa Browning receives a lead role instead of her. Jemma also dates Rob, which causes friction between her and Chelsea, although they reconcile after Chelsea''s encounter with Eddie. Jon wants to date Sumitha, but she is no longer interested. Jon is annoyed by his parents, who have little time for him. However, after Laura is injured in front of him at one of his mother''s animal rights demonstrations, he realises that he likes her and asks her out. Laura''s mother is pregnant, and her boyfriend Melvyn objects to Laura spending time at demos with her neighbour Daniel. Laura''s brother is born prematurely, and at Laura''s suggestion is named Charlie. Sumitha becomes a swot when she develops a crush on her new science teacher, Paul Sharpe. At the end of the term she tells him about her feelings, but learns that Paul is engaged to Mrs. McConnell. Sumitha is dismissive when Sandeep asks her to come back home with him, and feels bad after learning that he is being bullied by Kevin and Matthew.

How Could You Do This To Me, Mum?

Jennifer is an Assistant District Attorney for the State of New York, New York County. A beautiful, inexperienced, criminal defense attorney, she foils a plot by Michael Moretti, the rising star of one of the most powerful organized crime families in America. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Di Silva, believing that Jennifer is truly responsible, fires her and vows to destroy her for her part in the fiasco with Michael Moretti. Di Silva arranges for the young lawyer Adam Warner to meet Parker in an attempt to persuade him that she is truly responsible for the bribe. Upon meeting her Adam falls for Jennifer and realizes that she isn''t guilty at all. With Adam''s help Jennifer begins to rise again, meanwhile Moretti, inspired by her determination to succeed, decides he would like to induct her as the Family consigliere (a mafia lawyer). Adam Warner, despite being married and groomed for the United States Senate, and with the possibility of a White House destination, can not help falling in love with Jennifer. When Adam tells Jennifer that his wife has asked for a divorce, Jennifer meets with Warner''s wife, Mary Beth. Being so close to the Senate election, the two women decide it is best for Adam to wait until after the election. Mary Beth however sleeps with Adam one last time, in the process tricking him into impregnating her. Adam learns that his wife is pregnant, wins the election, and tells Jennifer that he truly loves her but they must end their affair. Jennifer having previously discovered that she too is pregnant and not wanting to hurt Adam, accepts, but doesn''t reveal to him that she is carrying his child. Jennifer gives birth to her son and names him Joshua Adam Parker. She keeps the birth a secret, allowing only Ken Bailey, her assistant, to become aware of her son. She then returns to her practice and soon makes headlines as a successful lawyer. Meanwhile, Michael constantly tries to spark friendship with Jennifer, which she rebuffs at every attempt, reminding him of his earlier tricks. Nevertheless, when her son is kidnapped by a criminal Jennifer is defending, she, in desperation, turns to Michael Moretti for help. After helping her, he seduces her and Jennifer becomes the Family consigliere.

Rage of Angels

The story concerns Joseph Timar, a sensitive young Frenchman, who travels from La Rochelle to Libreville in Gabon to work at a job his uncle has arranged for him at SACOVA, a logging business. Upon arriving, he discovers the job is not available; unsure of what to do, he finds temporary residence at a local hotel where he ends up spending his time drinking and playing billiards with a group of hotel regulars: an assortment of loggers and minor government officials. After the first night of his stay, Timar awakens to an unexpected sexual encounter with Adèle, the proprietor''s wife. Shortly thereafter, a black servant, Thomas, is found murdered and Adèle''s ailing husband Eugène finally dies of snail fever. The night before Eugène''s funeral, using the pretence of leaving Adèle alone to grieve, the regulars convince Timar to come with them on a late night jaunt to a native village. Here the group picks up African women, one of whom is married, but whose husband seems used to his wife being treated as a whore by the white colonials. The group drives to a clearing in woods and a drunken party ensues. Timar stands by while the others steal the women''s clothing and drive off laughing. After the funeral, Adèle convinces Timar to use his uncle''s influence to acquire a concession for the two of them for which she will provide the capital. Despite a growing suspicion that Adèle is being less than honest with him, Timar agrees. The details are worked out, and the two begin the journey by riverboat to their new territory. They pause at a village where Adèle inexplicably disappears into a native hut for a time before returning. Timar contracts dengue fever along the way, and spends the rest of the trip in a state of delirium.

Tropic Moon

The novel is a satirical epic of the colonization of Maryland based on the life of an actual poet, Ebenezer Cooke, who wrote a poem of the same title. The Sot-Weed Factor is what Northrop Frye called an anatomy &mdash; a large, loosely structured work, with digressions, distractions, stories within stories, and lists (such as a lengthy exchange of insulting terms by two prostitutes). The fictional Ebenezer Cooke (repeatedly described as "poet and virgin") is a Candide-like innocent who sets out to write a heroic epic, becomes disillusioned and ends up writing a biting satire. The novel is set in the 1680s and 90s in London and on the eastern shore of the colony of Maryland. It tells the story of an English poet named Ebenezer Cooke who is given the title "Poet Laureate of Maryland" by Charles Calvert. He undergoes many adventures on his journey to Maryland and while in Maryland, all the while striving to preserve his innocence (i.e. his virginity). The book takes its title from the grand poem that Cooke composes throughout the story, which was originally intended to sing the praises of Maryland, but ends up being a biting satire based on his disillusioning experiences.

The Sot-Weed Factor

Two young women are waiting for a bus to Woodstock, and they decide to hitch a lift. Later that night, one of them, Sylvia Kaye, is found murdered and apparently sexually assaulted in the car park of the Black Prince pub in Woodstock. Suspicion falls on various characters. The body is reported found by John Sanders, a young man who, it later transpires, is addicted to pornography and sometimes paid Sylvia for sex. He admits to waiting for her on the night of her murder but found her dead. It turns out he interfered with the body but did not murder her. Inspector Morse discovers the lift was offered in a red car and guesses various bits of information about the owner. His discoveries lead him to calculate the chances of finding a red car in North Oxford which meets all the criteria. There is only one, and it belongs to Bernard Crowther, a don at the university who lives on Southdown Road. Crowther admits that, although married, he is having an affair with another woman. He admits giving a lift to two women and dropping them in Woodstock while on the way to meet his mistress. Crowther''s wife kills herself, mistakenly thinking that her husband is the murderer; Crowther himself dies shortly afterwards from a heart attack, thinking that she is the killer. In the end it turns out it was neither of them but rather the other girl at the bus stop, Sue Widdowson, who was Crowther’s mistress. Crowther had dropped her off and had sex with Sylvia. Widdowson became insanely jealous, crept up behind Sylvia in the car, and hit her on the back of the head with a tyre lever lying in the lot. A further complication involves Jennifer Coleby who worked with Sylvia in an insurance office. Jennifer is having an affair with her boss, Palmer, and shares a flat with Sue Widdowson. Crowther types coded messages to a girlfriend who proves to be Widdowson. He leaves the messages with Coleby at her work, and she delivers them to Widdowson. The police are sent on a merry dance chasing them.

Last Bus to Woodstock

Sixteen year old Max arrives in a new household inhabited by several families and individuals. Among them there are a six year old boy named Mango; and a fifteen year old girl, Emma. Emma and her father Ted — an old friend of Max''s parents — had arrived in the household some months earlier. Max brings the tree seedlings which he has grown from seeds with him when he moves in. Whilst he develops friendships with the other children, Emma remains distant from him. She does not appear to like Max; struggling to find her place in the household. For all of Emma''s life, she and Ted had constantly been moving from city to city. Since arriving in Sydney, Emma had secretly located and found her mother, whom she had never previously met. Max''s classmate Olivia finds a photograph of Max at the age of four, building a sandcastle with another child. Olivia asks about this other child, and remarks that she looks like Emma. Max feels sure it couldn''t be Emma, whom he has only recently met. Max and Emma begin planting Max''s tree seedlings at railway stations and in public parks. Max begins to have a strange feeling that has known Emma for a long time. Meanwhile, a friendship develops between Olivia and Emma. It is through this friendship that Emma starts to find a real sense of belonging in the household. The children offer the remaining trees to local residents, offering to plant them in their gardens. Mango asks what the trees will say to each other when they grow up and see each other over the roofs of the houses. Emma replies, "They’ll say, I’ve been waiting for ages to grow up and meet you. Where have you been all my life?” , this comment making Max sense a spiritual connection between themselves and the trees. Max looks through his photos again, and realises that the other child in the photo is in fact Emma, as one photo also shows Ted. Max''s mother explains that Emma had lived with their family for some time when she was young. Eventually, Ted and Emma leave the household to move to Brisbane. Emma leaves something for Max in her room: an old photo of the two of them playing in the sand. It is identical to Max''s.

Sand Monkeys

The story is a third-person narrative, but the point of view is entirely that of Simon Wood - his thoughts, feelings and memories, the things he sees and experiences, conversations he has, conversations he overhears. The novel opens at Simon''s boarding school in the south of England, where the poisonous atmosphere of bullying and denigration has nurtured Simon''s "devils", as he describes his blind rages. He first sees Joe Moreton there, when the man has given Simon''s mother a lift to an event at the school. Simon loathes him at first sight and regards him as a "yob", unimpressed by his fame as an artist. At an art gallery the boy overhears a conversation making clear that Joe and his mother are dating, which enrages Simon. When mother tells him she intends to marry Joe, he vainly begs her not to, and then refuses to attend the wedding. But he must finally join his mother, his sister, and Joe at their new home in Cheshire. There both his mother''s happiness and his sister''s adoration of Joe incense him, for he regards them as betraying his father''s memory. A neighboring unused water mill, separated from the house by a turnip field, provides a refuge, but it harbours a sinister secret. During the war, the miller was murdered by his wife and her lover. By his own attitude and actions, Simon becomes increasingly isolated. When he is driven to call on his father''s spirit for support, it appears that the call is intercepted by the spirits at the mill, which manifest as scarecrows and imperceptibly advance across the turnip field to threaten the family. Simon''s friend Tris la Chard comes to stay, and helps Simon to face up to reality and defeat the spirits.

The Scarecrows

It is the coming of the End Times: the Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgment will soon descend upon the human race. This comes as a bit of bad news to the angel Aziraphale (who was the angel of the Garden of Eden) and the demon Crowley (who, when he was originally named Crawly, was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the apple), respectively the representatives of God and Satan on Earth, as they have become used to living their cozy, comfortable lives and have, in a perverse way, taken a liking to humanity. As such, since they are good friends (despite ostensibly representing the polar opposites of Good and Evil), they decide to work together and keep an eye on the Antichrist, destined to be the son of a prominent American diplomat stationed in Britain, and thus ensure he grows up in a way that means he can never decide between Good and Evil, thereby postponing the end of the world. Unfortunately, Warlock, the child everyone thinks is the Anti-Christ is, in fact, a perfectly normal eleven-year-old boy. Due to mishandling of several infants in the hospital, the real Anti-Christ is Adam Young, a charismatic and slightly otherworldly eleven-year-old who, despite being the harbinger of the Apocalypse, has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents and as a result has no idea of his true powers. As Adam blissfully and naively uses his powers, creating around him the world of Just William (because he thinks that is what an English child''s life should be like), the race is on to find him&mdash;the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble and the incredibly accurate (yet so highly specific as to be useless) prophecies of Agnes Nutter, seventeenth-century prophetess, are rapidly coming true. Agnes Nutter was a witch in the 17th century and the only truly accurate prophet to have ever lived. She wrote a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, a collection of prophecies that did not sell very well because they were unspectacular, cryptic and, ironically enough, all true. She, in fact, decided to publish it only so that she could receive a free author''s copy. There is only one copy of the book left, which belongs to her descendant Anathema Device. Agnes was burned at the stake by a mob (because that is what mobs did at that time); however, because she had foreseen her fiery end ("Ye''re tardy; I should have been aflame ten minutes since") and had packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats, everyone who participated in the burning was killed instantly. Anathema teams up with Newton Pulsifer, the descendant of the man who initiated the burning of Agnes, to use the prophesies and find the Antichrist. Unfortunately, that is exactly what everyone else is trying to do, and time is running out.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Jude the Obscure

By Thomas Hardy

Green Grass, Running Water

By Thomas King

Blott on the Landscape

By Tom Sharpe

A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray

By Ann M. Martin

How Could You Do This To Me, Mum?

No Author Listed

Rage of Angels

By Sidney Sheldon

Tropic Moon

By Georges Simenon

The Sot-Weed Factor

By John Barth

Last Bus to Woodstock

By Colin Dexter

Sand Monkeys

By Joanne Horniman

The Scarecrows

By Robert Westall

Good Omens

By Neil Gaiman