The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between rich and poor. Soon his wife dies—he blames it on her grief over the disappearance of her sister Esther. Having already lost his son Tom at a young age, Barton now falls into depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist, trade-union movement. Having taken up work at a dressmaker''s (her father having objected to her working in a factory), Mary becomes subject to the affections of hard-working Jem Wilson and Harry Carson, son of a wealthy mill owner. She fondly hopes, by marrying Carson, to secure a comfortable life for herself and her father, but immediately after refusing Jem''s offer of marriage she realizes that she truly loves him. She therefore decides to evade Carson, planning to show her feelings to Jem in the course of time. Jem believes her decision to be final, though this does not change his feelings for her. Meanwhile, Esther, a "street-walker," returns to warn John Barton that he must save Mary from becoming like her. He simply pushes her away, however, and she''s sent to jail for a month on the charge of vagrancy. Upon her release she talks to Jem with the same purpose. He promises that he will protect Mary and confronts Carson, eventually entering into a fight with him, which is witnessed by a policeman passing by. Not long afterwards, Carson is shot dead, and Jem is arrested on suspicion, his gun having been found at the scene of the crime. Esther decides to investigate the matter further and discovers that the wadding for the gun was a piece of paper on which is written Mary''s name. She visits her niece to warn her to save the one she loves, and after she leaves Mary realises that the murderer is not Jem but her father. She''s now is faced with having to save her lover without giving away her father. With the help of Job Legh (the intelligent grandfather of her blind friend Margaret), Mary travels to Liverpool to find the only person who could provide an alibi for Jem—Will Wilson, Jem''s cousin and a sailor, who was with him on the night of the murder. Unfortunately, Will''s ship is already departing, so that, after Mary chases after the ship in a small boat, the only thing Will can do is promise to return in the pilot ship and testify the next day. During the trial, Jem learns of Mary''s great love for him. Will arrives in court to testify, and Jem is found ''not guilty''. Mary has fallen ill during the trial and is nursed by Mr Sturgis, an old sailor, and his wife. When she finally returns to Manchester she has to face her father, who is crushed by his remorse. He summons Henry Carson, Harry''s father, to confess to him that he is the murderer. Carson is still set on justice, but after turning to the Bible he forgives Barton, who dies soon afterwards in Carson''s arms. Not long after this Esther comes back to Mary''s home, where she, too, dies soon. Jem decides to leave England, where, his reputation damaged, it would be difficult for him to find a new job. The novel ends with the wedded Mary and Jem, their little child, and Mrs Wilson living happily in Canada. News comes that Margaret has regained her sight and that she and Will, soon to be married, will visit.

Mary Barton

Colonel Anthony Russell, an officer in the Australian army, is captured on a mission in China along with his squad of seven men. As the Chinese are excitied of the possibilities of Russell defecting and broadcasting Communist propaganda, they assign Major Lim, a Chinese propaganda officer with a bitterness towards westerners - it is revealed later on that his parents were killed by a British Soldier. Lim forces Russell to write his life story, in order to find out information that he will use in his efforts to brainwash him. In order to convince Russell he is serious, Lim drugs him into a sedated state which makes Russell believe that he is witnessing the execution of his men. After it becomes clear that Russell will not broadcast, and prompting by the Australian Government, Russell is sent back to Australia. As he leaves he plane he is intercepted by Government officials and placed under arrest on suspicion of being a Communist spy. It is revealed that while he was a prisoner in China, he was subconsciously taught Russian; as a result of this, further suspicion falls on him. The book ends with the officials telling Russell to write his life story.

When the Enemy Is Tired

The introduction starts the book in the setting of a small picnic of a human and his dog. The human is apparently telling the reader to not venture into the Withering Wood, a forest of trees rumored to have legendary creatures such as "hairy trolls, nasty gnomes, and scary pixies and fairies." The book then changes setting into inside the forest, where we see a small monster named Dennis and his mother, showing that Dennis was very polite for a young monster. It describes Dennis''s fear of humans, which leads to the next part of the book. Dennis screams and shouts he will not go to bed. The mother, surprised at this sudden fear of bed, asks why. Dennis explains that he is afraid of humans. He says humans will "creep under my monster bed while I''m asleep." Dennis''s mother is not convinced of her son''s story and tries to persuade Dennis to fall asleep. She gives Dennis his teddy bear and also says she will not turn off the light. She begins to kiss Dennis, but Dennis reacts and bites her on the nose. Dennis''s mother then promises her son that the humans won''t get him. She then readies him for bed. However, Dennis concludes he will sleep under his bed so the humans will not be able to find him. As Dennis falls asleep, a young boy skips school and ventures into the Withering Wood to hide (presumably from his parents). He walks deep into the woods so that he comes upon Dennis''s and his mother''s cave. Not knowing where he is, he walks into the cave for rest. He then decides to sleep. He finds Dennis''s bedroom and decides to sleep on the bed. He changes into his night clothes and begins to fall asleep. However, the boy was afraid of monsters. With the absence of his mother, he checks under the bed himself, and to his surprise, he finds Dennis. Both Dennis and the young boy run away. The book then explains not to misbehave and how it would feel if Dennis''s mother would tell the reader if humans were not real.

The Monster Bed

The story begins with Noah, an 80-year-old man, reading to a woman in a nursing home. He tells her the following story: : Noah, 31, returns from World War II to his town of New Bern, North Carolina. He finishes restoring an antebellum-style house, after his father''s death. Meanwhile Allie, 29, sees the house in the newspaper and decides to pay him a visit. : They are meeting, again, after a 14-year separation, which followed their brief but passionate summer romance when her family was visiting the town. They were separated by class, as she was the daughter of a wealthy family, and he worked as a laborer in a lumberyard then. Seeing each other brings on a flood of memories and strong emotions in both of them. They have dinner together and talk about their lives and the past. Allie learns that Noah had written letters to her, every day of one year, 365 letters after their breakup. She realizes that her mother must have intercepted his letters. They talk about what could have happened between them without her mother''s interference. At the end of the night, Noah invites Allie to come back the next day and promises her a surprise. She decides to see him again. During this time, her fiancé, Lon, tries to reach her at the hotel. When Allie does not respond to his calls, he begins to worry. : The next day, Noah takes Allie on a canoe ride in a small lake where swans and geese swim. She is enchanted. On their way back, they are caught in a storm and end up soaked. When they return to his house, they talk again about how important they were to each other, and how their feelings have not changed. Noah and Allie share a kiss and make love. : Allie''s mother shows up the next morning and gives Allie the letters from Noah. When her mother leaves, Allie is torn and has a decision to make. She knows she loves Noah, but she does not want to hurt Lon. Noah begs her to stay with him, but she decides to leave. She cries all the way back to the hotel and starts reading the letters her mother returned to her. At the hotel, her fiancé, Lon, is waiting in the lobby. The man stops reading the story at this point, and tells the reader that he is reading to his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer''s disease and does not recognize him. He explains that he is also ill, battling a third cancer, and suffering heart disease, kidney failure, and severe arthritis in his hands. He resumes reading the story and describing their life together: her career as a famous painter, their children, growing old together, and finally the diagnosis of Alzheimer''s. He had changed the names in the story to protect her, but he is Noah and she is Allie. They walk together and Allie, although she does not recognize him, says she might feel something for him. That night they have dinner together. Referring to the story, she says that she thinks Allie chose Noah. Recognizing her husband, she tells him that she loves him. They embrace and talk, but after almost four hours, Allie fades and begins to panic and hallucinate. She forgets who he is again.

The Notebook

Solly Spaeth is a financier whose machinations with the "Ohippi Hydro-Electric Project" have left a number of people much less wealthy than once they were, including his business partner, Rhys Jardin. Jardin''s beautiful daughter Valerie is involved with Spaeth''s son Walter. Rhys is so impoverished, he has to sell up his personal property at auction, much to the dismay of his daughter and his long-time servant/valet/trainer, Pink. Walter asks Ellery Queen to sit in on the auction and buy every lot, which is how Ellery becomes involved when Solly Spaeth is found pierced by an ancient sword whose blade has been coated with molasses and cyanide. Suspicion falls on a number of people, including the Jardin household, Solly''s son, lawyer and his mistress, the kooky Winni Moon, but Ellery works through alibis and motives and traces the crime back to the murderer. A sub-plot of the novel is that Ellery has been hired to work on a screenplay and has been completely idle for weeks because he can''t get in to see studio head Jacques Butcher; Butcher plays a much more prominent role in the next novel, The Four of Hearts.

The Devil To Pay

The time is November 1899 through February 1900; the place is Ladysmith, a small railway town in the British Colony of Natal near ths border with the Boer Republics. The Boers have surprised the world with initial victories over the British Army and have now laid siege to Ladysmith. As they shell the town from surrounding hills, people die, disease is rampant, structures collapse, starvation looms, there is panic about enemy agents and yet the British muddle through. The setting of Giles Foden’s novel is historically accurate, and a number of historical figures appear as characters; for example, the Boers arrest a young reporter named Winston Churchill as he struggles to reach the besieged town, and an Indian lawyer-turned-medical volunteer named Mohandas K. Gandhi becomes more committed to his philosophy of active non-violence. The core of Ladysmith is a fictionalised version of a love story that Giles Foden found in the letters of his great-grandfather, who was a British soldier at Ladysmith. Bella, the Irish hotelkeeper''s daughter, falls in love, first, with a British soldier; and later with a Portuguese barber, thus defying convention and rebelling against her father.

Ladysmith

In 1960, 58-year-old Jim Fergesson decides to sell his Oakland-based auto repair business and retire. This threatens to greatly inconvenience his business tenant, used car salesman Al Miller, who rents a lot from Fergesson to sell his battered but superficially reconditioned old jalopies. Chris Harmon, an entrepreneur, advises Fergesson to invest in a new super-garage located in Marin Country Gardens. Jim takes a fall in the mud and has a minor heart attack during a visit to the property to personally verify its existence. Miller is convinced that Harmon is corrupt and makes an amateurish attempt at blackmailing him over his alleged (then-illegal) sale of salacious audio recordings. At the same time Al enters employment with Harmon as a curiously unqualified salesman of Classical Music. This, as it turns out, was an innocent administrative error. Al''s actual assignment now involves the mass marketing of, wait for it now, Barbershop Music. He sees conspiracies, machinations and double-dealings where there are none and strives mightily, but ultimately fails, to disrupt the final contract-signing between Fergesson and Harmon by playing on old Jim''s paranoia. The strain of it all takes its toll on a recently injured, weakened, ailing Fergesson and he dies later that night at home. Al then discovers that his used car lot has been ferociously vandalised, although the exact time and date remain uncertain. This plays an unexpectedly important role in the unfoldment of subsequent events. Things are not quite what they seem, and coincidence plays a starring role here. His wife Julie quits her job and they run off together across Nevada, whilst Lydia, Jim''s widow, discovers that her late husband''s deal with Harmon was, contrary to what Al had sincerely believed, completely legitimate. Al is temporarily detained after Lydia threatens to sue him for fraud. Julie leaves him forever. In a moment of true serendipity Al starts a new relationship with his married real estate vendor, a vivacious, attractive "colored" woman by the name of Mrs. Lane.

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

The tale begins with Sharpe witnessing a massacre of British troops in a fort by the traitor Major Dodd, for which he blames himself. After being hired by Colonel McCandless, whom Sharpe had befriended a couple of years earlier (Sharpe''s Tiger), Sharpe travels to Wellesley''s army, where he witnesses its siege of the city of Ahmednuggur, whose garrison is commanded by Dodd. Throughout these events, Sharpe is unknowingly pursued by Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, who has framed him for attacking a British officer and been given the authority to arrest him. During the battle at Ahmednuggur, Sharpe and McCandless attempt to find and capture Dodd, who manages to escape. During the search, Sharpe rescues the wife of a French officer in Dodd''s service, named Simone Joubert. McCandless decides to use Joubert for a prisoner exchange, and a chance to view Scindia''s army, commanded by Anthony Pohlmann. While in the enemy camp, McCandless'' horse is stolen, and he is wounded attempting to save it. He and Sharpe later leave and attempt to inform Wellesley of the enemy army''s decision to march to Borkardan. Pohlmann, however, decides to lay a trap for the British army at Assaye. After returning to Wellesley''s army, Hakeswill confronts Sharpe and McCandless, who prevents Sharpe from being arrested. Obadiah then begins planning his next move. As the British army marches toward Borkardan, Wellesley discovers the trap Pohlmann has laid for him, and decides to attack his army head on, despite being vastly outnumbered. In the early stages of the fight, Wellesley''s aide is killed, and Sharpe takes his place. Dodd is also present at the battle, commanding his regiment, the Cobras. The battle is hard fought, but Wellesley''s troops carry the day. At the climax of the fight, Wellesley is unhorsed and surrounded by enemies whom Sharpe fights off alone, thus saving the general''s life. Pohlmann''s army retreats into Assaye itself, and McCandless orders Sharpe to follow him into the city to once again attempt to capture Dodd. Dodd however, makes his escape along with much of Pohlmann''s gold. While in the city, McCandless encounters Obadiah, who kills him. Following the battle, Sharpe speaks to Wellesley, who promotes him to the rank of Ensign. Obadiah is now unable to arrest Sharpe because of his rank. Sharpe then throws Obadiah out a window and leaves him under the foot of one of Pohlmann''s elephants. The British army then marches off to pursue Scindia''s retreating army, the events of which are detailed in the next book, Sharpe''s Fortress.

Sharpe''s Triumph

Sixteen years in the past on Earth Ben Trask along with other members of British E-Branch awake to a nightmare and feel compelled to go to their HQ in London, where they find each other waiting. Once there they use their combined ESP powers to project a hologram of the nightmare into view. They see a body of a man all burned and blackened by fire spinning in the darkness, suddenly he explodes and disappears into golden shards of light, one of the shards seems to come right out of the image and fly out of the room. They realize they have witnessed the death of Harry Keogh in the vampire world. (Necroscope: Deadspawn) Back in the present on Earth, Nathan is trapped, stuck inside the entrance of the wormhole gate in Perchorsk in Russia. Unsure if Nathan is human or Wamphyri The commander of Perchorsk, Turkur Tzonov, a telepath, contacts British E-Branch for help. Ben Trask and Ian Goodly agree to go to Perchork as advisors. Once at Perchork, Ben''s talent immediately tells him Nathan is human. Nathan is moved to a cell in the complex where Turkur begins interrogation, but Nathan stays quiet, only using his telepathy to talk to Ben. He realizes that the British knew his father (having learned this from reading Turkur''s mind), and wants to know more so he accepts their help. Another Russian telepath Siggi Dam feels sorry for Nathan and allows him to escape. He flees into the mountains where he is finally intercepted by a British special forces helicopter and taken to England. Once there he is told about his father and speaks to some of Harry''s dead friends. E-Branch also tell him of the Möbius continuum and how Harry could teleport. Eager to learn this ability as he already has the numbers in him, Nathan starts to learn mathematics from a tutor but soon surpasses him. He then starts taking lessons from members of the dead, in particular Harry''s own teacher a dead British headmaster. E-branch also shares with Nathan the location of the second gate in Romania which he can use to go home, but Nathan must wait until the river there is at its lowest to get to the entrance, so he spends many months with the British learning about the world and his father. While Nathan and Zek Foener are on a trip to visit the grave of her husband Jazz Simmons, they are attacked by Turkur''s men (still trying to recapture Nathan). Having nowhere to run they are forced to swim in the ocean. Meanwhile in England Ian and David Chung know something is happening and turn on a computer in Harry''s room in the E-branch Headquarters. A golden dart flies out of it and disappears. It finds Nathan who is still hiding in the ocean and in danger, and strikes him. By this blow he instantaneously learns Harry''s knowledge of the Möbius mathematics and how to transport. He teleports both himself and Zek straight back to the E-Branch office though the Continuum. While all this has been happening on Earth, back in the vampire world Nestor has ascended as the Wamphyri Lord Nestor Lichloathe, and has discovered the dread power of Necromancy. He is also inflicted with leprosy from crashing his flyer into the leper village. The Wamphyri of Turgosheim have also been busy as well, been making flyers and fighting beasts to follow Lady Wratha''s group across to the west in order to wage war against them.

The Last Aerie

The central character, Hamer Shawcross, starts as a studious boy in an aspirational working-class family in Ancoats, Manchester; he becomes a socialist activist and soon a career politician, who eventually is absorbed by the upper classes he had begun by combating. In fact the story is rather subtler than this summary sounds, despite the fact that the author''s sympathies obviously lie with Shawcross''s friends and associates who remain faithful to the cause; however, many of the middle class and aristocratic characters are portrayed fairly sympathetically, and one character whose career parallels that of Shawcross in his rise from poverty to eminence is a market-boy who becomes a major capitalist. The book also gives a fair impression of the growth particularly of the Labour Party in Britain; historical characters, such as Keir Hardie, occasionally appear, and part of the book is taken up with the hardships of life for coal mining communities in South Wales at the turn of the 20th century. The treatment of the militant women''s suffrage movement is especially detailed—there are graphic descriptions of imprisonment and forcible feeding of hunger strikers. Hamer Shawcross is often taken to be based on Ramsay MacDonald; though there are similarities in their careers, there are as many differences in their personalities. A 1947 film Fame is the Spur starring Michael Redgrave ignores the subtleties to give a straightforward tale of a revolutionary losing his fire. Because there was a politician called Hartley Shawcross active at the time, the name of the central character was changed. A 1982 TV series starring Tim Pigott-Smith as Hamer Shawcross more accurately portrayed the subtleties of the book. cy:Fame is the Spur

Fame is the Spur

Set in the late 18th century to the late 1980s, the story follows the 200-year-long life of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, and his rise from humble beginnings as an impoverished aristocrat in the countryside of France to the city of Paris to become a vain and arrogant vampire. After escaping his family and running off to Paris with his friend and confidante Nicolas de Lenfent (nicknamed Nicki by Lestat), Lestat is kidnapped and bitten by the rogue elder vampire Magnus, who orphans him on the night he is made. Later, his dying mother, Gabrielle, arrives to say goodbye to him. In order to save her, Lestat bites her, transforming her into his first companion. Lestat abandons Nicki for fear of causing him harm and shuns contact with his loved ones. He later turns Nicki into a vampire after Armand kidnaps him and they begin to grow apart because of Nicki''s sullenness; he later commits suicide by "going into the fire," from severe depression. Armand "shows" Lestat the history of how he was made by Marius. Compelled by the idea of Marius, Lestat leaves markings carved into rock in numerous places while traveling with Gabrielle, hoping that one day, Marius will see them and find Lestat. Whilst in Egypt, abandoned by Gabrielle, Lestat sleeps in the ground after being burned by the sun,and is recovered by Marius who takes him to his Mediterranean island. Then, Marius shares his past with him, and shows him Those Who Must Be Kept, Akasha and Enkil. Once Marius has given his warning to Lestat not to go see them again and leaves on a short outing, Lestat takes Nicolas''s old violin and plays for the King and Queen, awakening them. Akasha feeds from Lestat as Lestat feeds from her. Then, Enkil, furious as ever, nearly kills Lestat, who is saved by Marius, and sent away. The book ends on a cliffhanger after Lestat''s debut concert in San Francisco, and leads directly into the third volume, the Queen of the Damned.

The Vampire Lestat

Rachel Marsh helps a young British Private, Matthew Kilroy, and continues to help him even after he is sent to jail for murder. During the cold winter in Boston, she sneaks food from the dinner table to Matthew. One day her friend Jane comes to her bedroom window, tells her to get dressed and follow her. In the center of Boston there were massive riots against the British soldiers, guns are being fired and people are being killed. In particular, in self defense, Matthew Kilroy shoots a Bostonion. In the meantime, Rachel is being swept away by the crowd and has lost Jane. She visits the book keeper, Henry Knox. Rachel wants the Adams'' to know nothing of her being there as that could loose her her position. Later in the book she has to tell Mr. Adams because she wants him to do the right thing for Matthew. Mr. Adams is angry, but understands why she did it. While Matthew was in jail, she secretly brings him food. This, Mr. Adams doesn''t really like. She wants the people she works for, John Adams, to help him and 6 other soldiers out of jail, but that would ruin his career. In the end John Adams does help the soldiers, but two of them including Matthew are accused of manslaughter. Matthew is branded and shipped back to England. Matthew proposes matrimony to Rachel but she refuses him. Mr. Adams feels that it would be best to let go of Rachel when they move back to Braintree. He gets Rachel a position in Pennsylvania that he thinks would suit her. She is about to start a new chapter in her life and wants to be heard in

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Mary Barton

By Elizabeth Gaskell

When the Enemy Is Tired

No Author Listed

The Monster Bed

By Jeanne Willis

The Notebook

By Nicholas Sparks

The Devil To Pay

By Frederic Dannay

Ladysmith

By Giles Foden

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

By Philip K. Dick

Sharpe's Triumph

By Bernard Cornwell

The Last Aerie

By Brian Lumley

Fame is the Spur

By Howard Spring

The Vampire Lestat

By Anne Rice

The Fifth of March

By Ann Rinaldi