The Power of Words (3): Classics

By Stilovsky and Schrodinger

Literature of all kinds plays such an important place in our lives whether it’s biography, classics, crime or poetry. In this non-fiction volume you will find a mine of facts which will fascinate all who love books.

Felix Schrödinger and Pyotr Stilovsky have compiled in this, the sixth volume of the series, a compendium of information that will appeal to all who love language and especially those who seek out knowledge for its own sake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: May 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728353517

Book preview

© 2020 Stilovsky and Schrodinger. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/26/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5350-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5351-7 (e)

DDC423.1

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

By the same authors:

Hoggrills End published December 2017

The Power of Numbers published January 2018

The Power of Names published May 2018

The Power of Notes published September 2018

The Power of Words (1) published December 2018

Power Quiz ’18 published January 2019

Power Quiz ’19 published March 2019

Power Quiz ’17 published July 2019

The Power of Words (2) published March 2020

The Power of Words (3) published May 2020

More ‘Power’ books to follow

Foreword

This is the sixth book in our series of ‘Power’ books and this one concentrates on literature classics. It will be most useful to students of English literature but should be of interest to anyone of a quizzical nature. The most difficult part in writing it has been the task of choosing what to include and what to leave out. You are welcome to criticize as you please but remember – these are our selections.

We apoligise that some of the synopses/plots are more informative than others but that’s life! If you find one of our synopses lacking in content, then have a go yourself and send it to us c/o Felix Schrodinger’s blog on Wordpress.

Whilst you are free to make use of the content for study purposes, please remember that it is your responsibility to verify the facts before such use; an attribution is always appreciated.

We are grateful to Wikipedia, the IMDB and the many useful websites which contain background and analysis of English literature. Thanks also to Margaret Gabica for her help in the later stages of production.

We have generally stuck with the simplified English alphabet and apologise to those who like their accents, graves and cedillas. Remember – this is not Wikipedia!

Pyotr and Felix

Dedicated to teachers of the English language despite all its faults.

There being little need for a contents list, the sections which follow are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. The works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens and Rowling are featured in our companion volume: The Power of Words (2).

Richard Adams (English, 1920-2016)

Watership Down (novel, 1972)

Location: Sandleford, Efrafa, Nuthanger Farm, Watership Down

Characters: Hazel; Fiver; Bigwig; Blackberry; Holly; Bluebell; Silver; Kehaar (a gull); General Woundwort and many more

Plot: Rabbits, living in Sandleford warren, realize that their home is under threat from development and travel to find a new place to live. They encounter Cowslip who invites them into a trap and Bigwig is almost killed in a snare. The gull Kehaar helps them find does at Efrafa and they negotiate Nuthanger farm, eventually finding their destination at Watership Down.

Opening line: The primroses were over.

Also: The Plague Dogs; The Girl in a Swing; Shardik

Louisa May Alcott (American, 1832-1888)

Little Women (semi-autobiographical novel, 1868)

Location: possibly Concord, Massachusetts

Characters: Marmee (mother); sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March; James and Laurie Laurence

Plot: The March sisters live in genteel poverty with their mother whilst their father is engaged in the American Civil War. Sisters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are at home. On Christmas evening they have dinner with their neighbour James Laurence, Jo meets his grandson, Laurie, at a dance and the sisters befriend him. Jo writes amateur theatricals and her ambition is to be a writer. Amy has problems with school and feels left out when Jo and Meg, who is a governess, go out with Laurie. Marmee has to leave to find Mr March and Beth falls ill. Jo decides to write up the events which befall the family and the book, My Beth, is accepted for publication.

Opening line: Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

Also: Good Wives; Little Men; Jo’s Boys, and How they Turned Out

Kingsley Amis (English, 1922-1995)

Lucky Jim (novel, 1954)

Location: a Midlands redbrick university

Characters: James Dixon; Professor Welch; Margaret Peel; Christine Callaghan; Bertrand

Plot: Jim Dixon courts his eccentric professor in a bid to retain his post. Fellow lecturer, Margaret Peel, employs emotional blackmail to engage him but he then meets Christine Callaghan which upsets her boyfriend, Bertrand and they fight. Jim makes a mess of his public lecture on Merrie England but gets offered a job in London and goes off with Christine.

Opening line: They made a silly mistake, though, the Professor of History said, and his smile, as Dixon watched, gradually sank beneath the surface of his features at the memory.

Also: Take a Girl Like You; Jake’s Thing; Difficulties with Girls; Stanley and the Women; The Old Devils; That Uncertain Feeling

Matthew Arnold (English, 1822-1888)

Sohrab and Rustum (poem based on the Persian story Shahnameh, 1853)

Location: Iran

Characters: Rustrum; Sohrab

Plot: Sohrab searches for his father and engages in battle with Persian forces, not realizing that Rustum, the Persian chieftain, is his father. He challenges the older man in single combat and is mortally wounded after which the father and son realize their relationship.

Opening Line: And the first grey of morning fill’d the east, And the fog rose out of the Oxus stream.

The Scholar Gypsy (poem based on a story by Joseph Glanville, 1853)

Location: Oxford

Plot: an impoverished Oxford student leaves to join a band of gypsies, who tell him secrets of their trade. He is discovered by former associates, who learn that the gypsies had a traditional manner of learning that did wonders using the power of imagination. When he had learned all that he could, he would leave and give an account of these secrets to the world.

Opening Line: Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill; Go, shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes!

Also: Thyrsis

Margaret Atwood (Canadian, 1939)

The Handmaid’s Tale (distopian novel, 1985)

Location: The Republic of Gilead

Characters: Offred; The Commander; Serena Joy; Ofglen; Nick; Moira; Luke; Professor Pieixoto

Plot: The USA has become a religious country where female rights are severely restricted and fertility has drastically reduced due to pollution and radiation. The Handmaids are the only ones left who can conceive and they are assigned to ‘commanders’ to produce babies. Ofglen arranges for Offred to have sex with Nick and she is then taken away – by the resistance or the secret police? Her story is later discovered recorded on tape.

Opening line: We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.

The Blind Assassin (novel, 2000)

Location: Ticonderoga, Ontario, and Toronto, Canada

Characters: Iris and Laura Chase; Alex Thomas; Richard E Griffin; Laura’s daughter Aimee

Plot: Iris Chase writes her family’s history for her estranged grand-daughter, Sabrina. She tells the story of her sister, Laura, a troubled young woman, who committed suicide by driving off a bridge but has since become famous thanks to the posthumous publication of her novel: The Blind Assassin. Captain Chase had arranged a marriage between his daughter Iris and Richard Griffen, a wealthy businessman who agreed to save his factory from closure, but Griffen broke his word, and the factory closed while he and Iris were on their honeymoon. Captain Chase died, but Richard hid this from Iris until after they returned. Laura’s behavior became erratic and, after a short stay in a mental hospital, she told Iris that Richard forced her to have an abortion.

Laura committed suicide and Iris took revenge on Richard by writing and publishing the book under Laura’s name, sparking an investigation into her death. Richard’s political career was ruined and he killed himself.

Opening line: Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.

Also: Surfacing; Cat’s Eye; Alias Grace; Oryx and Crake

Jean M Auel (American, 1936)

The Clan of the Cave Bear (novel, 1980)

Location: Not defined but possibly the Danube Valley

Characters: Ayla; Brun; Creb; Iza; Broud; Uba

Plot: Following an earthquake, a young girl, Ayla is orphaned and, after surviving an attack by a cave lion, she is adopted by the Clan who are Neanderthals. She is raised by Iza as a medicine woman and invents an arrow sling but falls foul of Broud and is forced to leave the clan and her half-Neanderthal son behind.

Opening line: The naked child ran out of the hide covered lean-to towards the rocky beach at the bend in the small river.

Also: The Earth’s Children series which follows Ayla’s life.

Jane Austen (English, 1775-1817)

Sense and Sensibility (novel, 1811)

Location: Norland Park, South West England; London and Sussex

Characters: Elinor, Marianne, John and Margaret Dashwood; Edward Ferrers

Plot: After the death of the patriarch, the Dashwood family take a step down in society and faces hardship as they are four women who are virtually penniless. Elinor and Marianne, two sisters with different perspectives on life and interests, keep each other in line and support one another through death, hardship and a love and friendship.

Opening line: The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex.

Pride and Prejudice (novel, 1813)

Location: Netherfield; Pemberley

Characters: Mr and Mrs Bennet and their daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia; Fitzwilliam Darcy; Charles and Caroline Bingley; George Wickham

Plot: At neighbour, Mr Bingley’s ball, he is attracted to Jane Bennet and dances with her. Wealthy Mr Darcy is haughty and aloof, causing him to be a disliked, and he declines to dance with Elizabeth. Jane developes a cold at Netherfield and Elizabeth meets Darcy there and he finds himself attracted to her. Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth but she rejects him and he then proposes to Charlotte Lucas. In the spring, Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, declaring his love for her despite her inferior social rank but she rejects him. Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter, explaining his actions in opposing matches, which he took because of the lack of propriety of the other members of her family. When Elizabeth visits Pemberley, the housekeeper there describes Darcy as kind and generous and, when he returns unexpectedly, he is exceedingly gracious. Elizabeth is surprised and delighted but then receives news that her sister Lydia has run off with Wickham. Wickham is to marry Lydia and she tells Elizabeth that Darcy was at her wedding. At Netherfield, Bingley proposes to Jane, who accepts. Darcy again proposes to Elizabeth and is accepted. Happy matches made by Jane and Elizabeth to the satisfaction of their parents.

Opening line: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Mansfield Park (novel, 1814)

Location: Northamptonshire

Characters: Fanny Price; Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram and their children; EdmundMary and Henry Crawford

Plot: Her family living under the heavy burden of poverty, ten-year-old Fanny Price is sent to live with her more affluent uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram of Mansfield Park. Growing up, she is treated as an inferior relation by all but her best friend and cousin Edmund. Quiet, staid, and virtuous Fanny witnesses the stirrings of passion when worldly siblings Henry and Mary Crawford move in next door. Henry toys with the affections of Fanny’s cousins Maria and Julia, but then his attentions turn to Fanny.

Opening line: About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

Emma (novel, 1816)

Location: Hartfield

Characters: Emma Woodhouse; George Knightly

Plot: A congenial young lady delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings and her relationship with gentle George Knightly.

Opening line: Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings in existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

Northanger Abbey (novel, published posthumously 1818)

Location: Bath

Characters: Catherine Morland; James Morland; Henry Tilney

Plot: When Catherine Morland is given the opportunity to stay with the childless Allen family in Bath, she is hoping for an adventure of the type she has been reading in novels. Soon introduced to society, she meets Isabella Thorpe and her brother John, a good friend of her own brother, James. She also meets Henry Tilney, a handsome young man from a good family and his sister, Eleanor. Invited to visit the Tilney estate, Northanger Abbey, she has thoughts of romance but soon learns that status, class and money are all equally important when it comes to matters of the heart.

Opening line: No one who had seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her to be an heroine.

Persuasion (novel, published posthumously 1818)

Location: Bath and Lyme Regis

Characters: Anne Elliot; Sir Walter Elliot; Captain Frederick Wentworth

Plot: Royal Navy captain Wentworth was haughtily turned down eight years ago as suitor of pompous baronet Sir Walter Elliot’s daughter Anne, despite true love. Now he visits their former seaside country estate, rented by his brother-in-law, admiral Croft, so the financially stressed baronet can afford a fashionable, cheaper residence in trendy Bath. First the former lovers meet again on the estate, where they feel vibes again, but neither dares admit them until it seems too late. Yet the truth becomes clear, both have moved, but meet again in Bath.

Opening line: Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; …

Richard Bach (American, 1936)

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (stories formed into a novel, 1970)

Location: unspecified coast

Characters: Jonathan; Chiang; Fletcher Lynd; The Great Gull (god)

Plot: Jonathan is bored with the normal life of a gull and rebels. He is taken to a higher plane by two (angel?) gulls and shown freedom. He experiments with flight, learns much about it, and then returns to the flock as a teacher. The added fourth part of the story deals with subsequent times when his teachings have become the basis of a religion.

Opening Line: It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.

Also: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

RM Ballantyne (Scottish, 1825-1894)

The Coral Island (novel, 1857)

Location: Polynesia

Characters: Ralph Rover; Jack Martin; Peterkin Gay, Chief Tararo; Bloody Bill; Avatea

Plot: Three boys are shipwrecked on the coral reef of an uninhabited island. They survive on fruit, fish and wild pigs and their life on the island is idyllic. Their first contact with other humans comes after several months when they observe two outrigger canoes, and the subsequent battle on the beach where they witness cannibalism. When a woman is threatened, they intervene and earn the gratitude of the chief, Tararo. British pirates visit the island so the boys hide in a cave but Ralph is captured and is taken on board the pirate schooner. He strikes up a friendship with Bloody Bill and they visit the island of Emo. Bill is mortally wounded leaving Ralph to sail back to the Coral Island alone. The boys sail to the island of Mango, where they again meet Tararo, whose daughter Avatea wishes to become a Christian. They attempt to take Avatea to a nearby island where the chief has been converted, but are overtaken and taken prisoner then released following Tararo’s conversion.

Opening Line: Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence.

Also: The Gorilla Hunters; The Pirate City

JG Ballard (English, 1930-2009)

The Drowned World (post-apocalyptic novel, 1962)

Location: London, 2145, the boiling lagoon

Characters: Dr Robert Kerans; Hardman; Beatrice Dahl; Dr Bodkin; Strangman

Plot: As part of a scientific survey unit sent to map the flora and fauna in the boiling lagoon, the role of Dr Robert Kerans team is soon upset by the onset of strange dreams which increasingly plague survivors of the apocalypse’ minds. Hardman flees the lagoon and heads south and a search team is unable to find his whereabouts. When the others flee the searing sun and head north, Kerans and two associates settle in the swamp in isolation. Strangman arrives with a team of pirates looting treasures within the deep and his team drain the lagoon exposing the city beneath; Bodkin attempts to blow up the flood defences and re-flood the area without success. Strangman pursues Bodkin and kills him .

Strangman and his team grow tired and suspicious of Keransso. He is imprisoned and subjected to bizarre rituals but survives. Kerans grows frustrated by inaction and succeeds in re-flooding the lagoon where Bodkin had failed. Wounded and weak, the doctor flees the lagoon and heads south without aim.

Opening line: Soon it would be too hot.

Empire of the Sun (novel, 1984)

Location: Shanghai and environs, China

Characters: Jamie Graham, Basie, Dr Ransome

Plot: Jamie Graham lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan occupies their settlement and in the ensuing chaos he is separated from his parents. After surendering to the Japanese Army he is interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center. Although the Japanese are enemies, he identifies with them because he feels that the camp is a comparatively safe place for him. The Japanese army finally collapses and food runs short. Jim barely survives, with those around him starving to death. The prisoners are force marched to Nantao and he is saved from starvation by air drops from American bombers. Jim returns to Lunghua camp and is reunited with his parents.

Opening line: Wars came early to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund.

Honore de Balzac (French, 1799-1850)

Eugenie Grandet (novel, 1833)

Location: Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France

Characters: Eugenie Grandet; Felix Grandet; Nanon; Adolphe des Grassins; Cruchot des Bonfons

Plot: Eugenie’s father Felix is a former cooper who has become wealthy through both business ventures and inheritance, having inherited three estates in one year. He is miserly and lives with his wife, daughter and their servant Nanon in an old run-down house. His banker des Grassins wants Eugenie to marry his son Adolphe but his lawyer Cruchot wants her to marry his nephew; both parties having an eye on the inheritance from Felix. The two families constantly visit the Grandets to get Felix’s favour, and he, in turn, plays them off against each other for his own advantage.

Opening line: There are houses in certain provincial towns whose aspect inspires melancholy, akin to that called forth by sombre cloisters, dreary moorland, or the desolation of ruins.

Pere Goriot (novel, 1834)

Location: Paris

Characters: Madame Vanquer; Jean-Joachim (Pere) Goriot; Delphine; Anastasie; Vautrin; Victorine Goriot; Poiret; Madame de Beauseant; Eugene de Rastignac

Plot: Eugene comes to Paris and finds lodging in the same boarding house as a former pasta maker, Pere Goriot. While the other lodgers abuse Goriot, Eugene is symapthetic to him. Vautrine wants Rastignac to pursue Victorine and will kill her brother but Rastignac refuses. In the midst of family troubles Goriot suffers a stoke and his daughter does not visit him as he dies. They send empty coaches to his funeral.

Opening line: For the last forty years the elderly Madame Vanquer, nee de Conflans, has kept a family boarding-house in the Rue Neuve-Saint-Genevieve between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel.

Lost Illusions (serial novel, 1837-1843)

Location: Angouleme then Paris

Characters: Lucien Chardon; David Sechard; Mme de Bargeton

Plot: Lucien, a handsome would-be poet, is poor and naive but highly ambitious. Failing to make his name in his dull provincial hometown, he is taken up by a patroness, the captivating married woman Madame de Bargeton, and prepares to forge his way in the glamorous beau monde of Paris. But he has entered a world far more dangerous than he realized, as Madame’s reputation becomes compromised and the fickle, venomous denizens of the courts and salons conspire to keep him out of their ranks. Lucien eventually learns that, wherever he goes, talent counts for nothing in comparison to money, intrigue and unscrupulousness

Opening line: At the time when this story opens, the Stanhope press and the ink-distributing roller were not as yet in general use in small provincial printing establishments.

Cousin Bette (1846)

Location: Paris

Characters: Bette Fischer; Valerie Marneff; Wenceslas Steinbock; Hector and Adeline Hulot; Jenny Cadine

Plot: Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into the lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot and her niece, Hortense Hulot. Failing to do so, she instead finds solace and company in a handsome young sculptor she saves from starvation. But the aspiring artist soon finds love in the arms of another woman, Hortense, leaving Bette a bitter spinster. Bette plots to take revenge on the family who turned her away and stole her only love. With the help of famed courtesan Jenny Cadine she slowly destroys the lives of those who have scorned her.

Opening line: It is not to the Roman prince, nor to the heir of the illustrious house of Cajetani, which has given popes to Christendom, that I dedicate this small fragment of a long story; it is to the learned commentator of Dante.

Also: La Comedie Humaine series of ninety one works about French society.

Iain Banks (Scottish, 1954-2013)

The Crow Road (1992)

Location: Gallanach, Scotland

Characters: Prentice McHoan, Kenneth and Rory McHoan; Ashley Watt

Plot: When Prentice’s Uncle Rory disappeared, eight years previously, while writing a book called The Crow Road, he became obsessed with the papers that he left behind and set out to solve the mystery. Along the way he becomes estranged from his father due to religious differences. He also suffers unrequited love and sibling rivalry whilst failing at his studies. He cannot accept life without a higher power and he doesn’t believe that people cease to exist when they die. However, his father is an atheist. Prentice’s transition to adulthood involves a fixation on a young woman and a more mature love for another. He tries to unravel his Uncle’s notes and the mystery of his disappearance, leading him to suspect that his family is hiding a secret.

Opening line: It was the day my grandmother exploded.

JM Barrie (Scottish, 1860-1937)

Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (aka Peter and Wendy, stage play, 1904)

Location: London and Neverland

Characters: Wendy, John and Michael Darling; Mr and Mrs Darling; Nana (Newfoundland dog); Liza; Peter Pan; Tinker Bell; The Lost Boys; Tiger Lily; Captain James Hook; Mr Smee; The Crocodile

Plot: Peter Pan calls on the Darling children at night time and Wendy reattaches his shadow which had become detached. They go to Neverland and encounter the Lost Boys who build a ‘Wendy House’ for Wendy to recover in. At Mermaid’s Lagoon they encounter Captain Hook and his pirates and the ticking crocodile which follows him. The Darlings adopt the Lost Boys after Wendy and co return home.

Opening Line: All children, except one, grow up.

Also: Quality Street; The Admirable Crichton

HE Bates (English, 1905-1974)

The Darling Buds of May (novella and first in a series, 1958)

Location: rural Kent

Characters: Pop, Ma and Mariette Larkin; Miss Pilchester; Cedric Charlton

Plot: The Larkins lead a very relaxed lide-style in rural Kent but Mariette appears to be pregnant. When a tax collector comes to investigate their affairs they try to get him to stay on and marry her. The couple do become attached, however, the pregancy turns out to be a false alarm.

Opening Line: After distributing the eight ice creams – they were the largest vanilla, chocolate, and raspberry super-bumpers, each in yellow, brown, and almost purple stripes – Pop Larkin climbed up into the cab of the gentian blue home-painted thirty-hundredweight truck, laughing happily.

Also: Love for Lydia; Fair Stood the Wind