ELLB4: Text Transformation
This coursework unit requires students to
choose two literary works from the selection of
prescribed authors in this powerpoint and
transform them into different genres.
This powerpoint will take you through the
prescribed authors that you can choose from.
Remember that you have to choose two texts
and that these must be from different genres.
PROSE
JONATHAN SWIFT
Key Works (18th
to 19th Century)
- A Modest
Proposal
- Gulliver’s
Travels
A Modest Proposal, is a satirical essay
written and published anonymously by
Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that
the impoverished Irish might ease their
economic troubles by selling their children as
food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This
satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes
towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in
general.
Style:
• A mainly satirical style
using his works to
comment on social or
religious issues.
• A convincing rhetorical
style using various
methods of argument.
Gulliver's Travels is an adventure story (in reality, a
misadventure story) involving several voyages of Lemuel
Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, who, because of a series of
mishaps en route to recognized ports, ends up, instead,
on several unknown islands living with people and
animals of unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies,
but who, after each adventure, is somehow able to
return to his home in England where he recovers from
these unusual experiences and then sets out again on a
new voyage.
Extract from Gulliver’s Travels
‘It is a very justifiable Cause of War to invade a Country after the People
have been wasted by Famine, destroyed by Pestilence, or embroiled by
Factions among themselves. It is justiable to enter into War against our
nearest Ally, when one of his Towns lies convenient to us, or a Territory of
Land that would render our Dominions round and complete. If a Prince
sends Forces into a Nation, where the People are poor and ignorant, he
may lawfully put half of them to Death, and make Slaves of the rest, in
order to civilise and reduce them from their barbarous Way of living. It is a
very kingly, honourable, and frequent Practice, when one Prince desires
the assistance of another to secure him against an Invasion, that the
Assistant, when he hath driven out the Invader, should seize on the
Dominions [240] himself, and kill, imprison or banish the Prince he came
to relieve. Alliance of Blood or Marriage, is a sufficient Cause of War
between Princes; and the nearer the Kindred is, the greater is their
Disposition to quarrel: poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are
proud; and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance. For these Reasons,
the Trade of a Soldier is held the most honourable of all others: Because a
Soldier is a Yahoo hired to kill in cold Blood as many of his own Species,
who have never offended him, as possibly he can.’
JANE AUSTEN
(18th
19th
Key Works
to
Century)
- Sense and
Sensibility
- Pride and Prejudice
- Emma
- Mansfield Park
- -Northanger Abbey
Style:
• New type of narrative
voice: Free Indirect
Speech
• Realism
• Social commentary
Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England,
London and Kent between 1792 and 1797, and
portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood
sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows
the young ladies to their new home, a meagre
cottage on a distant relative's property, where
they experience love, romance and heartbreak.
The philosophical resolution of the novel is
ambiguous: the reader must decide whether
sense and sensibility have truly merged.
Emma is a novel about the flaws of youth
and the perils of misconstrued romance. The
novel was first published in December 1815.
As in her other novels, Austen explores the
concerns and difficulties of genteel women
living in Georgian-Regency England; she also
creates a lively comedy of manners among
her characters.
Extract from Sense and Sensibility
"The whole country about them abounded in beautiful
walks. The high downs, which invited them from almost
every window of the cottage to seek the exquisite
enjoyment of air on their summits, were a happy
alternative when the dirt of the valleys beneath shut up
their superior beauties; and towards one of these hills did
Marianne and Margaret one memorable morning direct
their steps, attracted by the partial sunshine of a showery
sky, and unable longer to bear the confinement which the
settled rain of the two preceding days had occasioned. The
weather was not tempting enough to draw the two others
from their pencil and their book, in spite of Marianne's
declaration that the day would be lastingly fair, and that
every threatening cloud would be drawn off from their
hills; and the two girls set off together.
THE BRONTËS
Key Works (19th Century)
- Jane Eyre (Charlotte
Bronte)
- Villette (Charlotte
Bronte)
- Wuthering Heights
(Emily Bronte)
- Tenant of Wildfell Hall
(Anne Bronte)
Style:
• Realism/Naturalism
• Social commentary
• Complex and refined
use of language and
syntax
• Elaborate phrasing
Charlotte's most famous novel depicts the emotional and
spiritual development of the heroine, which is mirrored by her
physical journeyings throughout the book. It describes her
search for self-worth, for identity as an individual and for
economic independence, in a world which did not expect such
ambitions in women.
The structure of Wuthering
Heights is complex: the narrator
is Lockwood, Heathcliff's
shadowy tenant at Thrushcross
Grange. He learns the history of
the Earnshaws and the Lintons
from Ellen ('Nellie') Dean, who
has been a servant at both
Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange, and whose
account fills most of the book.
Within that story, the characters
come to life and speak with their
own individual voices.
Extract from Wuthering Heights
I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass,
and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate
branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the
fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of
nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm,
but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice
sobbed, 'Let me in—let me in!' 'Who are you?' I asked,
struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine
Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of
Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton)
'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!' As it
spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking
through the window.
THOMAS HARDY
Key Works (19th-20th
Century)
-
Far From the
Madding Crowd
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles
The Return of the
Native
Jude the Obscure
Style:
• Commanding and
intense use of language
• Characters ruled by
nature and Victorian
expectations
• Setting: Usually bleak
and forbidding Dorset
landscapes
Bathsheba Everdene, capable, romantic, and vain, is an orphan
living with an aunt. When Gabriel Oak, a prosperous sheep
farmer, proposes, she almost accepts him but draws back
when he pictures married life as soberly domestic.
Circumstances reverse their fortunes. Bathsheba inherits a
large farm, and Oak loses his. He becomes her shepherd,
faithfully trying to guide her and guard her interests. The story
continues as further suitors complicate the story. A detailed
rural setting.
Jude the Obscure is a novel that tells the history of Jude
Fawley. After a failed marriage, Jude has a relationship
with his cousin Sue and start a family.
Their relationship turns to tragedy when their oldest son,
a depressive boy they've nicknamed "Little Father Time,"
realizes the economic difficulties his parents are facing-with so many mouths to feed. To ease the burden, he kills
his brothers and sisters and then hangs himself. He leaves
a misspelled letter, "Done because we are too menny.“
The story continues as the characters try to face the
tragedy.
Extract from Jude the Obscure
Though Farmer Troutham had just hurt him, he was a boy
who could not himself bear to hurt anything. He never
brought home a nest of young birds without lying awake in
misery half the night after, and often reinstating them and
the nest in their original place the next morning. He could
scarcely bear to see trees cut down or lopped, from a fancy
that it hurt them; and late pruning, when the sap was up and
the tree bled profusely, had been a positive grief to him in his
infancy. This weakness of character, as it may be called,
suggested that he was the sort of man who was born to ache
a good deal before the fall of the curtain upon his
unnecessary life should signify that all was well with him
again. He carefully picked his way on tiptoe among the
earthworms, without killing a single one.
R.L. STEVENSON
Key Works (19th-20th
Century)
- Treasure Island
- Kidnapped
- Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde
Style:
• Discussion of morality
• Use of polar opposites
• Multiple narratives
Treasure Island: When young Jim Hawkins discovers a map
showing the way to Captain Flint's treasure, he and Squire
Trelawney set sail on the Hispaniola to search for the gold.
Little do they know that among their crew is the dastardly
pirate Long John Silver. Silver has a devious plan to keep the
gold all to himself. Can brave Jim outwit the most infamous
pirate ever to sail the high seas? Will he escape from Treasure
Island alive?
Kidnapped: Orphaned and penniless, David Balfour sets
out to find his last living relative, miserly and reclusive
Uncle Ebenezer. But Ebenezer is far from welcoming, and
David narrowly escapes being murdered before he is
kidnapped and imprisoned on a ship bound for the
Carolinas. When the ship is wrecked, David, along with the
fiery rebel Alan Breck, makes his way back across the
treacherous Highland terrain on a quest for justice.
Through his powerful depiction of the two very different
central characters - the romantic Breck and the rational
Whig David - Stevenson dramatized a conflict at the heart
of Scottish culture, as well as creating an unforgettable
adventure story.
Extract from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she was surprised to
recognize in him a certain Mr Hyde, who had once visited her master
and for whom she had conceived a dislike. He had in his hand a
heavy cane, with which he was trifling; but he answered never a
word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience. And
then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping
with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid
described it) like a madman. The old gentleman took a step back,
with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that
Mr Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth. And
next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under
foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones
were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway. At
the honor of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted.
KATE CHOPIN
Key Works (19th20th Century)
- At Fault
- The Awakening
Style:
• Use of imagery
• Parallel sentence
structures
• Themes: women's
search for selfhood, for
self-discovery or
identity. Many of her
stories comment on
women's revolt against
conformity.
• Regional dialects
Therese Lafirme, a young widow who runs a
plantation in Louisiana, falls in love with David
Hosmer, a man who runs the sawmill. When
she finds out he is divorced, however, her
strong moral and religious convictions make it
impossible for her to accept his marriage
proposal.
The Awakening: Heralded as one of the first instances of
feminist literature and rejected at its time of publication
by the literary set on grounds of moral distaste, Kate
Chopin’s The Awakening caused consternation in 1899.
Constrained and confined by the limitations surrounding
marriage and motherhood in the late 1800s, Edna
Pontellier begins to challenge the notion of femininity
through her thoughts and actions. Questioning her love for
her husband, and opening herself up to the possibilities of
other men and a life outside of societal convention leads
to a gradual awakening of her desires. Chopin’s fascinating
exploration of one woman challenging the expectation
that surrounds her is powerful, daring and ultimately
tragic in its conclusions.
Extract from The Awakening
Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a
characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had
lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she
had apprehended instinctively the dual life--that outward existence
which conforms, the inward life which questions.
That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little the mantle of
reserve that had always enveloped her. There may have been--there
must have been--influences, both subtle and apparent, working in
their several ways to induce her to do this; but the most obvious was
the influence of Adele Ratignolle. The excessive physical charm of
the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous
susceptibility to beauty. Then the candor of the woman's whole
existence, which every one might read, and which formed so striking
a contrast to her own habitual reserve--this might have furnished a
link. Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle
bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.
P.G. Wodehouse
Key Works (20th
Century)
- The World of
Blandings
- The Jeeves
Omnibus
Style:
• Abbreviated words
• References to
Shakespeare or Latin
• Unique blend of
contemporary London
clubroom slang with
elegant, classicallyinformed drawing-room
English
Blandings: In this wonderfully fat omnibus, which seems to
span the dimensions of the Empress of Blandings herself
(the fattest pig in Shropshire and surely all England), the
whole world of Blandings Castle is spread out for our
delectation: the engagingly dotty Lord Emsworth and his
enterprising brother Galahad, his terrifying sister Lady
Constance, Beach the butler (his voice 'like tawny port
made audible'), James Wellbeloved, the gifted but not
always sober pigman, and Lord Emsworth's secretary the
Efficient Baxter, with gleaming spectacles, whose attempts
to bring order to the Castle always end in disarray.
The Jeeves Omnibus: Luckily for us, Bertie Wooster
manages to retain Jeeve's services through all the
vicissitudes of purple socks and policeman's helmets, and
here, gathered together for the first time, is an omnibus of
Jeeves novels and stories comprising three of the funniest
books ever written: Thank You, Jeeves, The code of the
Woosters and The Inimirable Jeeves.
Extract from Right Ho, Jeeves
"What-ho, Gussie," I said.
You couldn't have told it from my manner, but I was feeling more than a bit
nonplussed. The spectacle before me was enough to nonplus anyone. I
mean to say, this Fink-Nottle, as I remembered him, was the sort of shy,
shrinking goop who might have been expected to shake like an aspen if
invited to so much as a social Saturday afternoon at the vicarage. And yet
here he was, if one could credit one's senses, about to take part in a fancydress ball, a form of entertainment notoriously a testing experience for the
toughest.
And he was attending that fancy-dress ball, mark you--not, like every other
well-bred Englishman, as a Pierrot, but as Mephistopheles--this involving,
as I need scarcely stress, not only scarlet tights but a pretty frightful false
beard.
Rummy, you'll admit. However, one masks one's feelings. I betrayed no
vulgar astonishment, but, as I say, what-hoed with civil nonchalance.
He grinned through the fungus--rather sheepishly, I thought.
"Oh, hullo, Bertie."
"Long time since I saw you. Have a spot?"
William Trevor
(20th-21st
Key Works
Century)
The Story of Lucy Gault
Love and Summer
Two Lives
The Children of
Dynmouth
Death in Summer
Style:
• Chekovian pattern
• Gothic elements
• Novels contain several
protagonists of equal
importance
• Common themes in his
works are the tensions
between Protestant
landowners and
Catholic tenants.
The story of Lucy Gault: Summer, 1921. Eight-year-old Lucy
Gault clings to the glens and woods above Lahardane - the
home her family is being forced to abandon. She knows the
Gaults are no longer welcome in Ireland and that danger
threatens. Lucy, however, is headstrong and decides that
somehow she must force her parents into staying. But the
path she chooses ends in disaster. One chance event,
unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults
for years to come and bind each of them in different ways to
this one moment in time, to this wild stretch of coast . . .
The Children of Dynmouth: The plot follows Timothy Gedge, a
socially inept yet intrusive teenage boy as he wanders around
the dull seaside town of Dynmouth, spying on the town's
residents. At first this behaviour is seen as merely annoying,
even comical, until people begin to realise that his purpose
may not be as innocent as initially thought.
Extract from The Story of Lucy Gault
Captain Everard Gault wounded the boy in the right
shoulder on the night of June the twenty-first, nineteen
twenty-one. Aiming above the trespassers' heads in the
darkness, he fired the single shot from an upstairs window
and then watched the three figures scuttling off, the
wounded one assisted by his companions. When daylight
came on the morning after the shooting, blood could be
seen on the sea pebbles of the turn-around in front of the
house .... The pebbles were raked, a couple of bucketfuls
that had been discoloured in the accident taken away.
Captain Gault thought it would be all right then ....
Margaret Atwood
(20th-21st
Key Works
Century)
The Handmaids Tale
Alias Grace
The Edible Woman
The Blind Assassin
The Year of the Flood
ALIAS GRACE: ‘Sometimes I whisper it over to
myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like
a taffeta skirt along the floor.' Grace Marks.
Female fiend? Femme fatale? Or weak and
unwilling victim? Around the true story of
one of the most enigmatic and notorious
women of the 1840s, Margaret Atwood has
created an extraordinarily potent tale of
sexuality, cruelty and mystery.
Style:
• Absence of quotation marks
to separate speech from
thoughts and feelings,
particularly in memories
• Exact, vivid and witty style
• Typical heroine of modern
urban women
• Can be sarcastic comments on
society as well as quests for
identity for her characters.
The Year of the Flood: The sun brightens in the east,
reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant
ocean. The vultures roosting on the hydro poles fan out
their wings to dry them. the air smells faintly of
burning. The waterless flood - a manmade plague - has
ended the world.
But two young women have survived: Ren, a young
dancer trapped where she worked, in an upmarket sex
club (the cleanest dirty girls in town); and Toby, who
watches and waits from her rooftop garden. The novel
continues as the search the world around them.
Extract from The Handmaid’s Tale
So, you're the new one, she said. She didn't step aside to let me in, she just
stood there in the doorway, blocking the entrance. She wanted me to feel that I
could not come into the house unless she said so. There is push and shove, these
days, over such toeholds.
Yes, I said.
Leave it on the porch. She said this to the Guardian, who was carrying my bag.
The bag was red vinyl and not large. There was another bag, with the winter
cloak and heavier dresses, but that would be coming later.
The Guardian set down the bag and saluted her. Then I could hear his footsteps
behind me, going back down the walk, and the click of the front gate, and I felt
as if a protective arm were being withdrawn. The threshold of a new house is a
lonely place.
She waited until the car started up and pulled away. I wasn't looking at her face,
but at the part of her I could see with my head lowered: her blue waist,
thickened, her left hand on the ivory head of her cane, the large diamonds on
the ring finger, which must once have been fine and was still finely kept, the
fingernail at the end of the knuckly finger filed to a gentle curving point. It was
like an ironic smile, on that finger; like something mocking her.
You might as well come in, she said. She turned her back on me and limped
down the hall. Shut the door behind you
Angela Carter
(20th-21st
Key Works
Century)
The Bloody Chamber
(short stories)
Nights at the Circus
The Magic Toyshop
Style:
The Bloody Chamber: All of the stories share a common
theme of being closely based upon fairytales or folk tales.
However, Angela Carter has stated:
My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American
edition of the book said, horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to
extract the latent content from the traditional stories.[ The
anthology contains ten stories: "The Bloody Chamber", "The
Courtship of Mr Lyon", "The Tiger's Bride", "Puss-in-Boots",
"The Erl-King", "The Snow Child", "The Lady of the House of
Love", "The Werewolf", "The Company of Wolves" and
"Wolf-Alice".
• Magical realism
• Transforms the Fairy Tale
Nights at the Circus: The novel focuses on the life and
tradition
• Post Feminism: women’s roles exploits of Sophie Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she
in relationships and sexuality would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched
from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to
• Some elements of gothic
develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she
fiction
has become a celebrated aerialist, and she captivates the
young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the
circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits
had not prepared him to encounter.
Extract from The Magic Toyshop
“Everything went black in the shocking folds of his embrace. She was very startled and
near to sobbing.
'Caw, caw,' echoed his raincoat.
'Don't be frightened,' he said. 'It is only poor Finn, who will do you no harm.'
She recovered herself a little, though she was still trembling. She could see her own
face reflected in little in the black pupils of his subaqueous eyes. She still looked the
same. She saluted herself. He was only a little taller than she and their eyes were
almost level. Remotely, she wished him three inches taller. Or four. She felt the warm
breath from his wild beast's mouth softly, against her cheek. She did not move. Stiff,
wooden, and unresponsive, she stood in his arms and watched herself in his eyes. It
was a comfort to see herself as she thought she looked.
'Oh, get it over with, get it over with,' she urged furiously under her breath.
He was grinning like Pan in a wood. He kissed her, closing his eyes so that she could not
see herself any more. His lips were wet and rough, cracked. It might have been
anybody, kissing her, and besides, she did not know him well, if at all. She wondered
why he was doing this, putting his mouth on her own undesiring one, softly moving his
body against her. What was the need? She felt a long way away from him, and superior,
also.”
Hanif Kureishi
(20th-21st
Key Works
Century)
The Buddha of
Surburbia
The Black Album
The Last Word
Intimacy
Style:
• Realism
• Episodic
• Based on historical
events
• Colloquialisms often
used
• Pop music referenced
heavily.
• Bildungsroman
The Buddha of Suburbia is said to be
very autobiographical. It is about Karim,
a mixed-race teenager, who is desperate
to escape suburban South London and
make new experiences in London in the
1970s. Gladly, he takes the unlikely
opportunity when a life in the theatre
announces itself. When there is nothing
left for him to do in London, he stays in
New York for ten months. Returning to
London, he takes on a part in a TV soap
opera and the book leaves its reader on
the verge of Thatcherism.
Intimacy: Set in contemporary London, the story tells why the
protagonist wants to leave his family. The timespan of the novel is
roughly 24 hours. He has lived with his partner for 6 years and
has known her for 10, he is unhappy in his relationship and has
had several affairs. The trigger for him deciding to leave his wife is
more or less that his young lover one day says to him. "If you
want me, I'm here". After that he gradually admits to himself that
he's not happy with his wife.
Extract from The Buddha of Surburbia
Karim Amir, seventeen years old, has his roots in India and England (his mum is
English and his father Indian). He is easily bored and "looking for trouble, any kind
of movement, action and sexual interest" he can find. He is ready for everything.
His little brother is called Allie.
At the end of the day, his father (Haroon) hands his supper to his mum (Margaret)
and starts to practise his yoga exercises. In contrast to the fit Haroon, Karim´s
mother is a plump and unphysical women with a pale, round face. She is
ashamed of her husband's crazy ideas and begs Karim to draw the curtain so that
she is sure of nobody can watch his yoga training. That night they have a meeting
with Mrs. Eva Kay where Haroon may speak on one or two aspects of oriental
philosophy. However, Margaret does not want to come with him because, in her
opinion, Eva just wants to see Haroon and will ignore her. To her mind she is much
"too English" and Eva is fascinated by Indian people.
Because of that Karim joins Haroon, after taking ages to get ready for the meeting.
He choses turquois flared trousers, a blue and white flower-patterned see-through
shirt, blue suede boots with Cuban heels, and a scarlet Indian waistcoat. Karim
likes to be dressed crazily.
James Joyce
(20th-21st
Key Works
Century)
Ulysses
The Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Style:
• Postmodern
• Stream of
consciousness
• Parody
• Use of classical
mythology (in
Ulysses)
• Interior Monologue
• Comment on society
in Dublin
Ulysses: This text chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom
through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the
day of Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle).
The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the
hero of Homer's Odyssey, and establishes a series of
parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem
and Joyce's novel.
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: This novel is a highly
autobiographical account of the adolescence of Stephen
Dedalus, who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realize
that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of
the stultifying effects of the religion, politics and essential
bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland.
Extract from Ulysses
Get a light snack in Davy Byrne’s. Stopgap. Keep me going. Had a good
breakfast.
—Roast and mashed here.
—Pint of stout.
Every fellow for his own, tooth and nail. Gulp. Grub. Gulp. Gobstuff.
He came out into clearer air and turned back towards Grafton street. Eat or be
eaten. Kill! Kill!
Suppose that communal kitchen years to come perhaps. All trotting down with
porringers and tommycans to be filled. Devour contents in the street. John
Howard Parnell example the provost of Trinity every mother’s son don’t talk of
your provosts and provost of Trinity women and children cabmen priests
parsons fieldmarshals archbishops. From Ailesbury road, Clyde road, artisans’
dwellings, north Dublin union, lord mayor in his gingerbread coach, old queen
in a bathchair. My plate’s empty. After you with our incorporated drinkingcup.
Like sir Philip Crampton’s fountain. Rub off the microbes with your
handkerchief.
Ian McEwan
Key Works (20th-21st
Century)
Enduring Love
Atonement
On Chesil Beach
The Innocent
The Cement Garden
Style:
• Postmodern
• Free Indirect style
• Withholding of
information to create
tension
• Sharp focus
• Concentration of
dialogue and action
Enduring Love: One windy spring day in the Chilterns
Joe Rose's calm, organised life is shattered by a
ballooning accident. The afternoon, Rose reflects,
could have ended in mere tragedy, but for his brief
meeting with Jed Parry. Unknown to Rose, something
passes between them - something that gives birth in
Parry to an obsession so powerful that it will test to
the limits Rose's beloved scientific rationalism,
threaten the love of his wife Clarissa and drive him to
the brink of murder and madness.
The Innocent: The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city,
wrenched between East and West, between past and present;
comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a
British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an
international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard
uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life and to lose his unwanted innocence. The promise of his new life
begins to be fulfilled as Leonard becomes a crucial part of the
surveillance team, while simultaneously being initiated into a
new world of love and sex by Maria, a beautiful young German
woman. It is a promise that turns to horror in the course of one
terrible evening - a night when Leonard Marnham learns just
how much of his innocence he's willing to shed.
Extract from Atonement
“There did not have to be a moral. She need only
show separate minds, as alive as her own,
struggling with the idea that other minds were
equally alive. It wasn't only wickedness and
scheming that made people unhappy, it was
confusion and misunderstanding, above all, it was
the failure to grasp the simple truth that other
people are as real as you. And only in a story could
you enter these different minds and show how
they had an equal value. That was the only moral a
story need have.”
Charles Dickens
Key Works (19th- 20th
Century)
Oliver Twist
Bleak House
Great Expectations
David Copperfield
The Old Curiosity Shop
Style:
• Repetition and long lists
• Use of dialect
• Use of figurative
language to describe
character, surroundings
and weather.
• Focus on detail
• Rhythmic
• Florid and poetic
• Comic
Bleak House is a novel published in 20 monthly
instalments between March 1852 and
September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's
finest novels, containing one of the most vast,
complex and engaging arrays of minor characters
and sub-plots in his entire canon. The story is
told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther
Summerson, and partly by a mostly omniscient
narrator. Memorable characters include the
menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly but
depressive John Jarndyce, and the childish and
disingenuous Harold Skimpole, as well as the
likeable but imprudent Richard Carstone.
Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age
novel. It depicts the growth and personal development of an
orphan named Pip. It is set among the marshes of Kent and in
London in the early to mid-1800s. From the outset, the reader is
"treated" by the terrifying encounter between Pip, the
protagonist, and the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Great
Expectations is a graphic book, full of extreme imagery, poverty,
prison ships, barriers and chains, and fights to the death.
Extract from Bleak House
LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in
Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the
streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth,
and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or
so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering
down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in
it as big as full-grown snow-flakes — gone into mourning, one might
imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses,
scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling
one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their
foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot
passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if the day
ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking
at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at
compound interest.