English III Honors~ AES Summer Reading
A total of THREE summer reading books must be read by all students entering the eleventh grade English III Honors for the 2015 -­‐ 2016 school year. Students may read any edition of the book (even Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. editions), provided that the student is reading the correct book by the same author as described below. Eleventh grade English honor students will be tested on all THREE books during the beginning of first quarter of the 2015 – 2016 school year. Students are encouraged to read carefully and annotate while reading. ALL students are required to read BOTH of the following novels: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Jane Austen's most popular and well-­‐known work, Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters as they navigate the social milieu of provincial 18th-­‐century England. With ironic plot twists, the young men and women in the novel find love and marriage in forms ultimately appropriate to their respective characters. Austen's belief in rationalism triumphs in the union of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, as the two come to respect each other's character and forgive each other's faults. The novel also provides a rich treatment of English society on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce James Joyce's semi-­‐autobiographical account of a young writer's growth from birth to early adulthood is at times poignant, at times laugh-­‐out-­‐loud funny, and at times spiritually and psychologically challenging. One of Joyce's first forays into stream-­‐of-­‐consciousness, this book gives the reader a front-­‐row seat in the mind of a developing genius, from Stephen Dedalus's first awareness of language ("Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road...") to his final decision to leave family and homeland in search of his own artistic vision ("Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead"). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel-­‐length work of a man who would become one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. It is the coming-­‐of-­‐age story of a young man, an artist, a nation, and a culture. Portrait is a must-­‐read for any serious student of literature and literary thought. Students must choose ONE of the following three books. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Rebecca is a novel of mystery and passion, a dark psychological tale of secrets and betrayal, dead loves and an estate called Manderley that is as much a presence as the humans who inhabit it: "when the leaves rustle, they sound very much like the stealthy movement of a woman in evening dress, and when they shiver suddenly and fall, and scatter away along the ground, they might be the pitter, patter of a woman's hurrying footsteps, and the mark in the gravel the imprint of a high-­‐heeled satin shoe." Manderley is filled with memories of the elegant and flamboyant Rebecca, the first Mrs. DeWinter; with the obsessive love of her housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who observes the young, timid second Mrs. DeWinter with sullen hostility; and with the oppressive silences of a secretive husband, Maxim. Rebecca may be physically dead, but she is a force to contend with, and the housekeeper's evil matches that of her former mistress as a purveyor of the emotional horror thrust on the innocent Mrs. DeWinter. The tension builds as the new Mrs. DeWinter slowly grows and asserts herself, surviving the wicked deceptions of Mrs. Danvers and the silent deceits of her husband, to emerge triumphant in the midst of a surprise ending that leaves the reader with a sense of haunting justice. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw "Ever since Pygmalion opened in London in April 1914 it has proved a very controversial play, from the (then) shocking language, to arguments about its correct ending. Critical interpretations have been similarly disputatious, encompassing views of the transformation of the impoverished Eliza Doolittle by phonetics expert Henry Higgins as either a story of economic and social liberation, or an example of the perpetuation of male control and self-­‐interest." Ivanhoe (1819) was the first of Scott's novels to adopt a purely English subject and was also his first attempt to combine history and romance, which later influenced Victorian medievalism. Set at the time of the Norman Conquest, "Ivanhoe" returns from the Crusades to claim his inheritance and the love of Rowena and becomes involved in the struggle between Richard Coeur de Lion and his Norman brother John. The gripping narrative is structured by a series of conflicts: Saxon versus Norman, Christian versus Jew, men versus women, played out against Scott's unflinching moral realism. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer. Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again