First published in 1843, “A Christmas Carol” is arguably Dickens’s most popular and accessible work. An instant success ever since its original publication, it is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold, bitter, old miser who despises Christmas and everything about it. When the ghost of Scrooge’s former business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him on Christmas Eve exactly seven years after his death, Scrooge is challenged to rethink his ways before ...
First published in French as a serial between September 1909 and January 1910, “The Phantom of the Opera” is a riveting story that revolves around its young Swedish protagonist, Christine Daae, a chorus girl at the Paris Opera House. After a time at the opera house, Christine begins hearing the voice of the phantom, who teaches her how to sing beautifully, bringing her great acclaim. The voice is in actuality a man named Erik, though not his rea ...
First published anonymously in 1912, “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” is James Weldon’s Johnson fictional account of a young biracial man living in America during the second half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. The so-called “Ex-Colored” man makes his living as a jazz pianist playing ragtime music at a popular New York club. It is here that he catches the attention of a wealthy white gentleman who takes a curious ...
First published in 1913, “O Pioneers!” is the first novel in Willa Cather’s “Great Plains” trilogy. Followed by “The Song of the Lark” in 1915 and “My Antonia” in 1918, “O Pioneers!” introduces us to the Bergsons, a family of Swedish-American immigrants who live in the fictional farm town of Hanover, Nebraska at the beginning of the 20th century. The story centers on the life of Alexandra Bergson, who inherits the family farm with her mother and ...
A classic coming of age story, “Jane Eyre” is the tale of its title character, a poor orphaned girl who comes to live with her aunt at Gateshead Hall. While there she endures great emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her aunt and cousins. Jane subsequently ships off to Lowood, a Christian boarding school for poor and orphaned girls. The conditions at the school are quite brutal. The students are subjected to cold lodgings, poor food, in ...
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who through a strangely unorthodox experiment creates a grotesque yet sentient being. Victor, repulsed by the thing that he has created, abandons the monster. The creature in turn saddened by this rejection, departs as well. What follows is a series of tragic events. There is no greater novel in the monster genre than “Frankenstein” and no more well known monste ...
Raskolnikov is an impoverished former student living in Saint Petersburg, Russia who feels compelled to rob and murder Alyona Ivanovna, an elderly pawn broker and money lender. After much deliberation the young man sneaks into her apartment and commits the murder. In the chaos of the crime Raskolnikov fails to steal anything of real value, the primary purpose of his actions to begin with. In the period that follows Raskolnikov is racked with gui ...
Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was first published in 1890 and is the classic tale of the moral decline of its title character, Dorian Gray. While Dorian has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward he is lectured to by Lord Henry Wotton, who espouses a hedonistic world view. Dorian is drawn to Wotton’s belief that beauty and sensuality are the only things in life worth pursuing and wishes that he would stay youn ...
Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” is the classic tale of its title character, Emma Bovary, the second wife of Charles Bovary, a well meaning yet plodding and clumsy doctor. Emma is an educated young woman who longs for the luxury and romance that she reads about in the popular novels of the day. When the two attend an elegant ball given by the Marquis d’Andervilliers, her longing for something more than the dullness provided by her own marriage ...
