José Ignacio Bescós gana el Premio de Novela Ciudad de Majadahonda
A este premio se han presentado 25 novelas de temas libre, originales o inéditas, que no han sido premiadas anteriormente en ningún otro certamen literario.
El jurado está compuesto por Soledad Puértolas, Luis Mateo Díez y Fernando Sánchez Dragó. El ganador de esta edición recibirá una dotación económica de 6.000 euros y una placa conmemorativa.
'Cadenas Privadas' es una novela que aúna drama, ironía y suspense en un argumento que también refleja de forma precisa algunas de las miserias, vanidades e incertidumbres de nuestra sociedad. Luz y Marcos, los protagonistas, verán unidas sus vidas por el misterio de Mauro Cendón en torno a la familia política de la primera.
José Ignacio Bescós es un madrileño de 41 años, casado y con dos hijos, licenciado en empresariales y con formación literaria en la Escuela de Letras de Madrid. Bescós ha sido guionista televisivo, columnista financiero, columnista deportivo y crítico literario.
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Sacred Hunger
Sacred Hunger is a historical novel by Barry Unsworth first published in 1992. It was joint winner of the Booker Prize that year, sharing the position with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.
The story is set in the mid 18th century and centers around the Liverpool Merchant, a slave ship employed in the triangular trade, a central trade route in the Atlantic slave trade. The two main characters are cousins Erasmus Kemp, son of a wealthy merchant from Lancashire, and Matthew Paris, a physician and scientist who goes on the voyage. The novel's central theme is greed, with the subject of slavery being a primary medium for exploring the issue.
Plot introduction
Enlightenment but long before the days of Darwin and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Matthew Paris is a central character in the novel, a physician several years older than his cousin Erasmus. Prior to the beginning of the story Paris had been imprisoned for writings on evolution that clashed with the dogma of the church, his wife Ruth dying while he was incarcerated. Wishing to escape his past, he accepts a position as surgeon on the Liverpool Merchant, a slave ship owned by his uncle William Kemp. His son Erasmus Kemp, a young man in his early twenties, has a long standing hatred for his cousin dating back to his younger years. He participates in a play initially, and is enamored with Sarah Wolpert, the daughter of a friend of his father. The ship's crew is made up of men available at the time around the Liverpool docks, and many are recruited by blackmail and deception. As the ship sets off toward the African continent to collect its cargo, it becomes clear that Paris and the ship's captain, Saul Thurso, have very different world views.
Synopsis
Part one
The novel is broken into two parts, beginning in 1752 and ending in 1765, with a decade or so separating the two. The Liverpool Merchant is the setting for most of the first part, with several landings on the coast of West Africa for picking up slaves and other excursions. Paris finds himself among a crew of men who despise being on the ship but have little other option. Some form friendships with him, while others are more inhospitable. While the crew are treated harshly under the ruthless discipline of Captain Thurso, Paris stands on a different level, being the nephew of the ship's owner. Tension between these two men arise early, and grow throughout the voyage. As they reach the coast of Guinea, Paris learns that the slaves are recruited by the local Kru people, who 'hunt' for slaves further inland. Slaves are bartered for trade goods of little value such as slave beads and kettles, with the captain haggling with the local traders.
Back in England Erasmus is falling in love with a local girl named Sarah Wolpert, and participates in The Tempest, a play that she is involved in. The two start a relationship, but Erasmus is very possessive, and conflicts ensue. Meanwhile his father, a cotton broker, is in financial trouble, and is relying heavily on a good profit from the voyage of the Merchant. He becomes depressed.
As the slaves come aboard Paris becomes increasingly concerned with their living conditions and general treatment. He is joined on the ship by De Blanc, an artist and philosopher who shares a similar stature with him on the ship, and with whom he exchanges views on subjects such as authority. The voyage is unlike anything he expected, the slaves taking on a defiant stance. They attempt to take their own lives, with the crew trying to prevent them from doing so. With disease and death already frequent on board the ship, dysentery then strikes. The writings in Paris' journal and his exchanges with those on board show his growing disgust with the slave trade, and he comes to question his motives for coming on the voyage and his role in assisting the slave traders.
I have assisted in the suffering inflicted on these innocent people and in doing so joined the ranks of those that degrade the unoffending... We have taken everything from them and only for the sake of profit—that sacred hunger... which justifies everything, sanctifies all purposes.
Meanwhile, William Kemp commits suicide. Erasmus, now planning to marry Sarah, is offered a job by her father, a wealthy business man. Too proud to accept his pity, he turns away from the Wolpert family, aiming to rebuild his father's empire.
The situation on board the Merchant continues to deteriorate. Thurso cuts the ship's rations, trying to keep as many slaves alive as possible. Death continues, the corpses tossed overboard. Thurso throw's a monkey overboard, a pet brought on board by one of the seamen. The crew begin to rebel against him, and he becomes paranoid, keeping to his own quarters. Finally, Thurso decides to throw the remaining slaves overboard, the insurance money being more attractive than their prospects for sale in a sickened state. As he attempts to have them tossed into the ocean, chains and all, the shipmates revolt. As the first part of the book ends, the fate of the Liverpool Merchant remains unclear.
Part two
Roughly a decade on, the second part of the book initially focuses on the fate of Erasmus. Having recovered from bankruptcy and the shame of his father's death, he has married into a wealthy family. His wife Margaret is the daughter of a wealthy man, Sir Hugo, President of the West India Association. Their marriage is clearly not one of love. It seems sure that the Liverpool Merchant has been lost at sea in bad weather. However, Kemp soon learns from another captain that the ship is beached on the south east coast of Florida. The ship's crew and slaves are said to be living together in a small inland settlement, trading with the local Indians. He immediately wishes to find them, seeking retribution against his cousin. He manages to obtain a small force of infantry equipped with cannon to capture them.
The ship's crew and slaves have been living together in a community for over a decade, speaking a trade pidgin from the Guinea coast. The few women are shared among the men, many of which now have children. Paris has a son with a woman named Tabakali, who he shares with another man. The small community live in a primitive fashion, having a simple anarchist/socialist political system. It is revealed that on several occasions in their early years individuals who threatened the fabric of their society were killed. Life is peaceful in general though, even utopian. The translator tells the children stories in a pidgin tongue which they all share, while Paris reads to them from Pope and Hume. Tensions in the community arise though, with a trial being contested between two men, Iboti and Hambo. Hambo accuses Iboti of trying to kill him, proposing that Iboti works for him for three years. He is acquitted of any wrongdoing, but the case concerns Paris deeply, and he is suspicious of the motives of the accusers. He takes his argument to Kireku, an important figure in the community. The men share very different viewpoints however, and Paris is unable to convince him that such use of fellow men is no worse than the slavery they were themselves subjected to—"he concludes that "nothing a man suffers will prevent him inflicting suffering on others. Indeed, it will teach him the way..."
Erasmus finds Paris' journal among the wreckage of the Merchant, his cousin's writings clashing with his strongly capitalist convictions, and further whetting his appetite for retribution. Erasmus' hatred for his cousin stems back to his childhood, when Matthew had forcefully lifted him away when he was trying to dam a river, a moment that has stuck with him throughout his life. With his party of fifty, he finds the settlement. Some are shot, the rest being taken to St. Augustine by ship. He intends to sell the slaves as his father's property, and have the crew hung. Although he particularly looks forward to the hanging of his cousin, Paris' leg is infected from a gunshot wound, and he becomes sick. As his cousin dies before they reach St. Augustine, Erasmus comes to the realization that he did not lift him clear of the dam to cheat him of victory, but to save him from defeat.
The story is set in the mid 18th century and centers around the Liverpool Merchant, a slave ship employed in the triangular trade, a central trade route in the Atlantic slave trade. The two main characters are cousins Erasmus Kemp, son of a wealthy merchant from Lancashire, and Matthew Paris, a physician and scientist who goes on the voyage. The novel's central theme is greed, with the subject of slavery being a primary medium for exploring the issue.
Plot introduction
Enlightenment but long before the days of Darwin and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Matthew Paris is a central character in the novel, a physician several years older than his cousin Erasmus. Prior to the beginning of the story Paris had been imprisoned for writings on evolution that clashed with the dogma of the church, his wife Ruth dying while he was incarcerated. Wishing to escape his past, he accepts a position as surgeon on the Liverpool Merchant, a slave ship owned by his uncle William Kemp. His son Erasmus Kemp, a young man in his early twenties, has a long standing hatred for his cousin dating back to his younger years. He participates in a play initially, and is enamored with Sarah Wolpert, the daughter of a friend of his father. The ship's crew is made up of men available at the time around the Liverpool docks, and many are recruited by blackmail and deception. As the ship sets off toward the African continent to collect its cargo, it becomes clear that Paris and the ship's captain, Saul Thurso, have very different world views.
Synopsis
Part one
The novel is broken into two parts, beginning in 1752 and ending in 1765, with a decade or so separating the two. The Liverpool Merchant is the setting for most of the first part, with several landings on the coast of West Africa for picking up slaves and other excursions. Paris finds himself among a crew of men who despise being on the ship but have little other option. Some form friendships with him, while others are more inhospitable. While the crew are treated harshly under the ruthless discipline of Captain Thurso, Paris stands on a different level, being the nephew of the ship's owner. Tension between these two men arise early, and grow throughout the voyage. As they reach the coast of Guinea, Paris learns that the slaves are recruited by the local Kru people, who 'hunt' for slaves further inland. Slaves are bartered for trade goods of little value such as slave beads and kettles, with the captain haggling with the local traders.
Back in England Erasmus is falling in love with a local girl named Sarah Wolpert, and participates in The Tempest, a play that she is involved in. The two start a relationship, but Erasmus is very possessive, and conflicts ensue. Meanwhile his father, a cotton broker, is in financial trouble, and is relying heavily on a good profit from the voyage of the Merchant. He becomes depressed.
As the slaves come aboard Paris becomes increasingly concerned with their living conditions and general treatment. He is joined on the ship by De Blanc, an artist and philosopher who shares a similar stature with him on the ship, and with whom he exchanges views on subjects such as authority. The voyage is unlike anything he expected, the slaves taking on a defiant stance. They attempt to take their own lives, with the crew trying to prevent them from doing so. With disease and death already frequent on board the ship, dysentery then strikes. The writings in Paris' journal and his exchanges with those on board show his growing disgust with the slave trade, and he comes to question his motives for coming on the voyage and his role in assisting the slave traders.
I have assisted in the suffering inflicted on these innocent people and in doing so joined the ranks of those that degrade the unoffending... We have taken everything from them and only for the sake of profit—that sacred hunger... which justifies everything, sanctifies all purposes.
Meanwhile, William Kemp commits suicide. Erasmus, now planning to marry Sarah, is offered a job by her father, a wealthy business man. Too proud to accept his pity, he turns away from the Wolpert family, aiming to rebuild his father's empire.
The situation on board the Merchant continues to deteriorate. Thurso cuts the ship's rations, trying to keep as many slaves alive as possible. Death continues, the corpses tossed overboard. Thurso throw's a monkey overboard, a pet brought on board by one of the seamen. The crew begin to rebel against him, and he becomes paranoid, keeping to his own quarters. Finally, Thurso decides to throw the remaining slaves overboard, the insurance money being more attractive than their prospects for sale in a sickened state. As he attempts to have them tossed into the ocean, chains and all, the shipmates revolt. As the first part of the book ends, the fate of the Liverpool Merchant remains unclear.
Part two
Roughly a decade on, the second part of the book initially focuses on the fate of Erasmus. Having recovered from bankruptcy and the shame of his father's death, he has married into a wealthy family. His wife Margaret is the daughter of a wealthy man, Sir Hugo, President of the West India Association. Their marriage is clearly not one of love. It seems sure that the Liverpool Merchant has been lost at sea in bad weather. However, Kemp soon learns from another captain that the ship is beached on the south east coast of Florida. The ship's crew and slaves are said to be living together in a small inland settlement, trading with the local Indians. He immediately wishes to find them, seeking retribution against his cousin. He manages to obtain a small force of infantry equipped with cannon to capture them.
The ship's crew and slaves have been living together in a community for over a decade, speaking a trade pidgin from the Guinea coast. The few women are shared among the men, many of which now have children. Paris has a son with a woman named Tabakali, who he shares with another man. The small community live in a primitive fashion, having a simple anarchist/socialist political system. It is revealed that on several occasions in their early years individuals who threatened the fabric of their society were killed. Life is peaceful in general though, even utopian. The translator tells the children stories in a pidgin tongue which they all share, while Paris reads to them from Pope and Hume. Tensions in the community arise though, with a trial being contested between two men, Iboti and Hambo. Hambo accuses Iboti of trying to kill him, proposing that Iboti works for him for three years. He is acquitted of any wrongdoing, but the case concerns Paris deeply, and he is suspicious of the motives of the accusers. He takes his argument to Kireku, an important figure in the community. The men share very different viewpoints however, and Paris is unable to convince him that such use of fellow men is no worse than the slavery they were themselves subjected to—"he concludes that "nothing a man suffers will prevent him inflicting suffering on others. Indeed, it will teach him the way..."
Erasmus finds Paris' journal among the wreckage of the Merchant, his cousin's writings clashing with his strongly capitalist convictions, and further whetting his appetite for retribution. Erasmus' hatred for his cousin stems back to his childhood, when Matthew had forcefully lifted him away when he was trying to dam a river, a moment that has stuck with him throughout his life. With his party of fifty, he finds the settlement. Some are shot, the rest being taken to St. Augustine by ship. He intends to sell the slaves as his father's property, and have the crew hung. Although he particularly looks forward to the hanging of his cousin, Paris' leg is infected from a gunshot wound, and he becomes sick. As his cousin dies before they reach St. Augustine, Erasmus comes to the realization that he did not lift him clear of the dam to cheat him of victory, but to save him from defeat.
The English Patient
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian villa. The novel won the Canadian Governor General's Award and the Booker Prize for fiction. The novel has been translated into more than 300 languages and was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name in 1996.
Plot introduction
The historical backdrop for this novel is the Second World War in Northern Africa and Italy. It begins in Egypt's capital, Cairo, just before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. A team of eccentric British archeologists are searching desert sites for important relics.
The English Patient is in part a sequel to Ondaatje's earlier work In the Skin of a Lion (1987); the characters of Hana and Caravaggio reappear from the earlier novel. We also learn the fate of Patrick Lewis, Hana's father and the main character of that work, and what influence he's had on Hana's character. One of the main characters in the new novel, the burned man, is Count László de Almásy, a famous Hungarian researcher of the Sahara Desert, disciple of Herodotus, and discoverer of the Ain Doua prehistoric rock painting sites in the western Jebel Uweinat mountain.
Plot summary
Hana, a young Canadian Army nurse, lives in the abandoned Villa San Girolamo in Italy, which is filled with hidden, undetonated bombs. In her care is the man nicknamed "the English patient," of whom all she knows is that he was burned beyond recognition in a plane crash before being taken to the hospital by a Bedouin tribe. He also claimed to be English. The only possession that the patient has is a copy of Herodotus' histories that survived the fire. He has annotated these histories and is constantly remembering his explorations in the desert in great detail, but cannot state his own name. The patient is, in fact, László de Almásy, a Hungarian desert explorer who was part of a British archaeological group. He, however, chose to erase his identity and nationality.
Caravaggio, a Canadian who served in Britain's foreign intelligence service since the late 1930s, was a friend of Hana's father, who died in the war, having been a pilot whose plane was shot down. Caravaggio, who entered the world of spying because of his skill as a thief, comes to the villa in search of Hana. He overheard in another hospital that she was there taking care of a burned patient. Caravaggio bears physical and psychological scars; he was deliberately left behind to spy on the German forces and was eventually caught, interrogated and tortured, his thumbs having been cut off. Seeking vengeance three years later, Caravaggio (like Almásy) is addicted to morphine, which Hana supplies.
One day, while Hana is playing the piano, two British soldiers enter the villa. One of the soldiers is Kip, an Indian Sikh who has been trained as a sapper or combat engineer, specializing in bomb and ordnance disposal. Kip explains that the Germans often booby-trapped musical instruments with bombs, and that he will stay in the villa to rid it of its dangers. Kip and the English Patient immediately become friends.
Prompted to tell his story, the Patient begins to reveal all: An English gentleman, Geoffrey Clifton and his wife, Katherine, accompanied the patient's desert exploration team. The Patient's job was to draw maps of the desert and The Clifton's plane made this job easier. Almásy fell in love with Katherine Clifton one night as she read from Herodotus' histories aloud around a campfire. They soon began a very intense affair, but in 1938, Katharine cut it off, claiming that Geoffrey would go mad if he discovered them. Geoffrey, however, did discover the affair when he tricked her into thinking he was out of town for the day (wanting to surprise her for their first wedding anniversary) and saw Katherine getting into a car on her way to Almásy.
When World War II broke out in 1939, the members of the exploration team decided to pack up base camp and Geoffrey Clifton offered to pick up Almásy in his plane. However, Geoffrey Clifton arrived with Katharine and tried to kill all three of them by crashing the plane, leaving Almásy in the desert to die. Geoffrey Clifton died immediately; Katharine survived, but was horribly injured. Almásy took her to "the cave of swimmers," a place the exploration team had previously discovered, and covered her with a parachute so he could leave to find help. After four days, he reached a town, but the British were suspicious of him because he was incoherent and had a foreign surname. They locked him up as a spy.
When Almásy finally got away, he knew it was too late to save Katharine, so he allowed himself to be captured by the Germans, helping their spies cross the desert into Cairo in exchange for gas and a car to get back to Katherine. After leaving Cairo, his car broke down in the desert. He went to the cave of swimmers to find Katharine, and retrieved her body and took it to the crashed plane, which had been buried under the sand. He tried to fly back to civilization, but the plane malfunctioned during flight. Almásy parachuted down covered in flames which was where the Bedouins found him.
Caravaggio, who had had suspicions that the Patient was not English, fills in details. Geoffrey Clifton was, in fact, an English spy and had intelligence about Almásy's affair with Katharine. He also had intelligence that Almásy was already working with the Germans.
Over time while Almásy divulges the details of his past, Kip becomes close to Hana. Kip's brother had always distrusted the West, but Kip entered the British Army willingly. He was trained as a sapper by Lord Suffolk, an English gentleman, who welcomed Kip into his family. Under Lord Suffolk's training, Kip became very skilled at his job. When Lord Suffolk and his team were killed by a bomb, Kip became separated from the world and emotionally removed from everyone. He decided to leave England and began defusing bombs in Italy. Kip's best friend, a British Army sergeant is killed in a bomb explosion.
Kip forms a romantic relationship with Hana and uses it to reconnect to humanity. He becomes a part of a community again and begins to feel comfortable as a lover. Then he hears news of the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan. He becomes enraged. He feels deceived and betrayed by the western world that he had tried to assimilate to. He threatens to kill the English Patient, but instead decides to leave the Villa.
For some time after their separation, Hana wrote Kip letters, but he never responded. She eventually stopped. Years later Kip is happily married with children and is a successful doctor; however, he still often thinks of Hana.
Characters in The English Patient
Almásy
Almásy is the title character. He arrives under Hana's care burned beyond recognition. He has a face, but it is unrecognizable and his tags are not present. The only identification they have of him is that he told the Bedouins that he was English. Thus, they call him just the English Patient. Lacking any identification, Almásy serves a sort of blank canvas onto which the other characters project their wishes. Hana finds in him redemption for not being at her father's side when he died in a similar fashion without anyone to comfort him. Kip finds a friend. The irony in the tale arises in that Almásy is not, in fact, English. Rather, he is Hungarian by birth and has tried to erase all ties to countries throughout his desert explorations.
Because of his complete rejection of nationalism, many of Almásy's actions which would otherwise seem reprehensible are somewhat forgiven. To a man with no nation, it is not wrong to help a German spy across the desert. The German is simply another man. Almásy is portrayed in a sympathetic light. This is partly because Almásy tells his own story, but it is also because Almásy always adheres to his own moral code.
Almásy is also at the center of one of the novel's love stories. He is involved in an adulterous relationship with Katharine Clifton, which eventually leads to her death and the death of her husband, Geoffrey Clifton. Katharine is the figure who leads Almásy to sensuality. He falls in love with her voice as she reads Herodotus. Sensuality--in both the sexual and observational senses-- is a major theme to the novel.
Hana
Hana is a twenty-year-old Canadian Army nurse. Hana is torn between her youth and her maturity. In a sense, she has lost her childhood too early. A good nurse, she learned quickly that she could not become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy", but immediately detaches from them once they are dead. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed. Hana comes to believe she is a curse whose friends inevitably die. Symbolic of her detachment and loss of childhood, she cuts off all of her hair and no longer looks in mirrors after three days of working as a nurse.
In contrast to this detachment, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. She then puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave and instead stays with her patient. She sees Almásy as saintlike and with the "hipbones of Christ". She falls in love with the English Patient in a purely non-sexual way.
The character of Hana is entirely paradoxical. She is mature beyond her years, but she still clings to childlike practices. She plays hopscotch in the Villa and sees the patient as a noble hero who is suffering. She projects her own romanticized images onto the blank slate of the patient, forming a sort of fairytale existence for herself.
Kip
Kip is an Indian Sikh. Kip was trained to be a sapper by Lord Suffolk who also, essentially, made him a part of his family. Kip is, perhaps, the most conflicted character of the novel. His brother is an Indian nationalist and strongly anti-Western. By contrast, Kip willingly joined the British military, but he was met with reservations from his white colleagues. This causes Kip to become somewhat emotionally withdrawn.
His emotional withdrawal becomes more pronounced with the death of his mentor and friend Lord Suffolk. Suffolk and his team were killed while they were attempting to dismantle a new of bomb, which detonated. After this event, Kip decides to leave England and work as a sapper in Italy where he meets Hana. He and his partner hear her playing piano, and, as musical instruments were often wired, entered the villa to stop her. Kip's partner leaves the villa and dies so Kip stays on, setting up camp in the courtyard.
Kip and Hana become lovers and, through that, Kip begins to regain confidence and a sense of community. He feels welcomed by these westerners, and they all seem to form a group that disregards national origins. They get together and celebrate Hana's twenty-first birthday, a symbol of their friendship and Kip's acceptance; however, shortly after, Kip hears news of America's dropping of the atom bomb on Japan. He realizes that the West can never reconcile with the East, and that America would never have done something so horrific to a Caucasian population. So he leaves and never returns, though later in his life he often thinks of Hana.
Caravaggio
Caravaggio is a Canadian thief and long-time friend of Hana's father. His profession is legitimized by the war, as the allies needed people to steal important documents for them. Caravaggio arrives in the villa as "the man with bandaged hands". His German captors cut off his thumbs. He, physically and mentally, can no longer steal, having "lost his nerve".
Hana remembers Caravaggio as a very human thief. He would always get distracted by the human element in a job. For instance, if an advent calendar was on the wrong day, he would fix it. She also has deep feelings of love for Caravaggio. It is debated if this love is romantic or simply familial, however Caravaggio does display a romantic love towards Hana in parts of the book.
Caravaggio is also addicted to morphine, as is Almásy. He uses this to get information out of Almásy.
Katharine Clifton
Katherine is the wife of Geoffrey Clifton. She has an affair with Almásy which her husband finds out about. She is Oxford educated. Almásy falls in love with her as she reads from Almásy's borrowed copy of The Histories around a campfire.
Katharine and Clifton met at Oxford. During the context of events told by The English Patient, she had been married to Geoffrey for only a year. A few weeks after they get married, she and Geoffrey fly to the desert to join Almásy's expedition crew. Once the affair begins, she is torn by guilt and eventually breaks off the affair. After Geoffrey kills himself, and they are stuck in the desert, she admits she always loved Almásy.
Geoffrey Clifton
An explorer and Katharine Clifton's husband. He joins Almásy's exploration group because he is rich and owns a plane. He is kind hearted, Oxford educated, and has a beautiful young wife. He seems to have everything going for him, but Katharine says that he has the capacity to be insanely jealous.
Although he claims to have journeyed to North Africa for exploration's sake, we find out that he was, in fact, working for British intelligence.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1996, it was made into a film of the same title by Anthony Minghella, starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Colin Firth and Naveen Andrews.
Plot introduction
The historical backdrop for this novel is the Second World War in Northern Africa and Italy. It begins in Egypt's capital, Cairo, just before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. A team of eccentric British archeologists are searching desert sites for important relics.
The English Patient is in part a sequel to Ondaatje's earlier work In the Skin of a Lion (1987); the characters of Hana and Caravaggio reappear from the earlier novel. We also learn the fate of Patrick Lewis, Hana's father and the main character of that work, and what influence he's had on Hana's character. One of the main characters in the new novel, the burned man, is Count László de Almásy, a famous Hungarian researcher of the Sahara Desert, disciple of Herodotus, and discoverer of the Ain Doua prehistoric rock painting sites in the western Jebel Uweinat mountain.
Plot summary
Hana, a young Canadian Army nurse, lives in the abandoned Villa San Girolamo in Italy, which is filled with hidden, undetonated bombs. In her care is the man nicknamed "the English patient," of whom all she knows is that he was burned beyond recognition in a plane crash before being taken to the hospital by a Bedouin tribe. He also claimed to be English. The only possession that the patient has is a copy of Herodotus' histories that survived the fire. He has annotated these histories and is constantly remembering his explorations in the desert in great detail, but cannot state his own name. The patient is, in fact, László de Almásy, a Hungarian desert explorer who was part of a British archaeological group. He, however, chose to erase his identity and nationality.
Caravaggio, a Canadian who served in Britain's foreign intelligence service since the late 1930s, was a friend of Hana's father, who died in the war, having been a pilot whose plane was shot down. Caravaggio, who entered the world of spying because of his skill as a thief, comes to the villa in search of Hana. He overheard in another hospital that she was there taking care of a burned patient. Caravaggio bears physical and psychological scars; he was deliberately left behind to spy on the German forces and was eventually caught, interrogated and tortured, his thumbs having been cut off. Seeking vengeance three years later, Caravaggio (like Almásy) is addicted to morphine, which Hana supplies.
One day, while Hana is playing the piano, two British soldiers enter the villa. One of the soldiers is Kip, an Indian Sikh who has been trained as a sapper or combat engineer, specializing in bomb and ordnance disposal. Kip explains that the Germans often booby-trapped musical instruments with bombs, and that he will stay in the villa to rid it of its dangers. Kip and the English Patient immediately become friends.
Prompted to tell his story, the Patient begins to reveal all: An English gentleman, Geoffrey Clifton and his wife, Katherine, accompanied the patient's desert exploration team. The Patient's job was to draw maps of the desert and The Clifton's plane made this job easier. Almásy fell in love with Katherine Clifton one night as she read from Herodotus' histories aloud around a campfire. They soon began a very intense affair, but in 1938, Katharine cut it off, claiming that Geoffrey would go mad if he discovered them. Geoffrey, however, did discover the affair when he tricked her into thinking he was out of town for the day (wanting to surprise her for their first wedding anniversary) and saw Katherine getting into a car on her way to Almásy.
When World War II broke out in 1939, the members of the exploration team decided to pack up base camp and Geoffrey Clifton offered to pick up Almásy in his plane. However, Geoffrey Clifton arrived with Katharine and tried to kill all three of them by crashing the plane, leaving Almásy in the desert to die. Geoffrey Clifton died immediately; Katharine survived, but was horribly injured. Almásy took her to "the cave of swimmers," a place the exploration team had previously discovered, and covered her with a parachute so he could leave to find help. After four days, he reached a town, but the British were suspicious of him because he was incoherent and had a foreign surname. They locked him up as a spy.
When Almásy finally got away, he knew it was too late to save Katharine, so he allowed himself to be captured by the Germans, helping their spies cross the desert into Cairo in exchange for gas and a car to get back to Katherine. After leaving Cairo, his car broke down in the desert. He went to the cave of swimmers to find Katharine, and retrieved her body and took it to the crashed plane, which had been buried under the sand. He tried to fly back to civilization, but the plane malfunctioned during flight. Almásy parachuted down covered in flames which was where the Bedouins found him.
Caravaggio, who had had suspicions that the Patient was not English, fills in details. Geoffrey Clifton was, in fact, an English spy and had intelligence about Almásy's affair with Katharine. He also had intelligence that Almásy was already working with the Germans.
Over time while Almásy divulges the details of his past, Kip becomes close to Hana. Kip's brother had always distrusted the West, but Kip entered the British Army willingly. He was trained as a sapper by Lord Suffolk, an English gentleman, who welcomed Kip into his family. Under Lord Suffolk's training, Kip became very skilled at his job. When Lord Suffolk and his team were killed by a bomb, Kip became separated from the world and emotionally removed from everyone. He decided to leave England and began defusing bombs in Italy. Kip's best friend, a British Army sergeant is killed in a bomb explosion.
Kip forms a romantic relationship with Hana and uses it to reconnect to humanity. He becomes a part of a community again and begins to feel comfortable as a lover. Then he hears news of the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan. He becomes enraged. He feels deceived and betrayed by the western world that he had tried to assimilate to. He threatens to kill the English Patient, but instead decides to leave the Villa.
For some time after their separation, Hana wrote Kip letters, but he never responded. She eventually stopped. Years later Kip is happily married with children and is a successful doctor; however, he still often thinks of Hana.
Characters in The English Patient
Almásy
Almásy is the title character. He arrives under Hana's care burned beyond recognition. He has a face, but it is unrecognizable and his tags are not present. The only identification they have of him is that he told the Bedouins that he was English. Thus, they call him just the English Patient. Lacking any identification, Almásy serves a sort of blank canvas onto which the other characters project their wishes. Hana finds in him redemption for not being at her father's side when he died in a similar fashion without anyone to comfort him. Kip finds a friend. The irony in the tale arises in that Almásy is not, in fact, English. Rather, he is Hungarian by birth and has tried to erase all ties to countries throughout his desert explorations.
Because of his complete rejection of nationalism, many of Almásy's actions which would otherwise seem reprehensible are somewhat forgiven. To a man with no nation, it is not wrong to help a German spy across the desert. The German is simply another man. Almásy is portrayed in a sympathetic light. This is partly because Almásy tells his own story, but it is also because Almásy always adheres to his own moral code.
Almásy is also at the center of one of the novel's love stories. He is involved in an adulterous relationship with Katharine Clifton, which eventually leads to her death and the death of her husband, Geoffrey Clifton. Katharine is the figure who leads Almásy to sensuality. He falls in love with her voice as she reads Herodotus. Sensuality--in both the sexual and observational senses-- is a major theme to the novel.
Hana
Hana is a twenty-year-old Canadian Army nurse. Hana is torn between her youth and her maturity. In a sense, she has lost her childhood too early. A good nurse, she learned quickly that she could not become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy", but immediately detaches from them once they are dead. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed. Hana comes to believe she is a curse whose friends inevitably die. Symbolic of her detachment and loss of childhood, she cuts off all of her hair and no longer looks in mirrors after three days of working as a nurse.
In contrast to this detachment, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. She then puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave and instead stays with her patient. She sees Almásy as saintlike and with the "hipbones of Christ". She falls in love with the English Patient in a purely non-sexual way.
The character of Hana is entirely paradoxical. She is mature beyond her years, but she still clings to childlike practices. She plays hopscotch in the Villa and sees the patient as a noble hero who is suffering. She projects her own romanticized images onto the blank slate of the patient, forming a sort of fairytale existence for herself.
Kip
Kip is an Indian Sikh. Kip was trained to be a sapper by Lord Suffolk who also, essentially, made him a part of his family. Kip is, perhaps, the most conflicted character of the novel. His brother is an Indian nationalist and strongly anti-Western. By contrast, Kip willingly joined the British military, but he was met with reservations from his white colleagues. This causes Kip to become somewhat emotionally withdrawn.
His emotional withdrawal becomes more pronounced with the death of his mentor and friend Lord Suffolk. Suffolk and his team were killed while they were attempting to dismantle a new of bomb, which detonated. After this event, Kip decides to leave England and work as a sapper in Italy where he meets Hana. He and his partner hear her playing piano, and, as musical instruments were often wired, entered the villa to stop her. Kip's partner leaves the villa and dies so Kip stays on, setting up camp in the courtyard.
Kip and Hana become lovers and, through that, Kip begins to regain confidence and a sense of community. He feels welcomed by these westerners, and they all seem to form a group that disregards national origins. They get together and celebrate Hana's twenty-first birthday, a symbol of their friendship and Kip's acceptance; however, shortly after, Kip hears news of America's dropping of the atom bomb on Japan. He realizes that the West can never reconcile with the East, and that America would never have done something so horrific to a Caucasian population. So he leaves and never returns, though later in his life he often thinks of Hana.
Caravaggio
Caravaggio is a Canadian thief and long-time friend of Hana's father. His profession is legitimized by the war, as the allies needed people to steal important documents for them. Caravaggio arrives in the villa as "the man with bandaged hands". His German captors cut off his thumbs. He, physically and mentally, can no longer steal, having "lost his nerve".
Hana remembers Caravaggio as a very human thief. He would always get distracted by the human element in a job. For instance, if an advent calendar was on the wrong day, he would fix it. She also has deep feelings of love for Caravaggio. It is debated if this love is romantic or simply familial, however Caravaggio does display a romantic love towards Hana in parts of the book.
Caravaggio is also addicted to morphine, as is Almásy. He uses this to get information out of Almásy.
Katharine Clifton
Katherine is the wife of Geoffrey Clifton. She has an affair with Almásy which her husband finds out about. She is Oxford educated. Almásy falls in love with her as she reads from Almásy's borrowed copy of The Histories around a campfire.
Katharine and Clifton met at Oxford. During the context of events told by The English Patient, she had been married to Geoffrey for only a year. A few weeks after they get married, she and Geoffrey fly to the desert to join Almásy's expedition crew. Once the affair begins, she is torn by guilt and eventually breaks off the affair. After Geoffrey kills himself, and they are stuck in the desert, she admits she always loved Almásy.
Geoffrey Clifton
An explorer and Katharine Clifton's husband. He joins Almásy's exploration group because he is rich and owns a plane. He is kind hearted, Oxford educated, and has a beautiful young wife. He seems to have everything going for him, but Katharine says that he has the capacity to be insanely jealous.
Although he claims to have journeyed to North Africa for exploration's sake, we find out that he was, in fact, working for British intelligence.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1996, it was made into a film of the same title by Anthony Minghella, starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Colin Firth and Naveen Andrews.
The Famished Road
The Famished Road is the Booker Prize-winning novel written by Nigerian author Ben Okri. The novel, published in 1991, follows Azaro, an abiku or spirit child, living in an unnamed African city. The novel employs a unique narrative style incorporating the spirit world with the "real" world in what some have classified as magical realism, while others have labeled it animist realism.
Characters
Azaro is the story's narrator. He is an abiku, or a spirit child who has never lost ties with the spirit world. The story follows him as he tries to live his life, always aware of the spirits trying to bring him back.
Azaro's father is an idealistic labourer who wants the best for his family and the community. He suffers greatly for this, eventually becoming a boxer and later a politician. Azaro's father loves him deeply, but is often bitter at having an abiku and occasionally goes on angry violent tirades.
Azaro's mother works very hard selling anything she can get her hands on for the family. She cares for her family deeply and constantly gives up food and security for her family and their ideals. She is proud that Azaro is her son and goes to great lengths to protect him.
Madame Koto is proprietress of a local bar. She has a liking for Azaro, though at times is convinced he brings bad luck. She starts out as a well-meaning woman, trying to get along with everyone else. However, as the story progresses, she becomes richer, siding with the political party of the rich, and is often accused of witchcraft. She tries to help Azaro and his family on numerous occasions but seems to try to take Azaro's blood to remain youthful.
Jeremiah, the Photographer is a young artist who brings the village to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to the village. He manages to get some of his photographs published, but practices his craft at great personal risk.
Characters
Azaro is the story's narrator. He is an abiku, or a spirit child who has never lost ties with the spirit world. The story follows him as he tries to live his life, always aware of the spirits trying to bring him back.
Azaro's father is an idealistic labourer who wants the best for his family and the community. He suffers greatly for this, eventually becoming a boxer and later a politician. Azaro's father loves him deeply, but is often bitter at having an abiku and occasionally goes on angry violent tirades.
Azaro's mother works very hard selling anything she can get her hands on for the family. She cares for her family deeply and constantly gives up food and security for her family and their ideals. She is proud that Azaro is her son and goes to great lengths to protect him.
Madame Koto is proprietress of a local bar. She has a liking for Azaro, though at times is convinced he brings bad luck. She starts out as a well-meaning woman, trying to get along with everyone else. However, as the story progresses, she becomes richer, siding with the political party of the rich, and is often accused of witchcraft. She tries to help Azaro and his family on numerous occasions but seems to try to take Azaro's blood to remain youthful.
Jeremiah, the Photographer is a young artist who brings the village to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to the village. He manages to get some of his photographs published, but practices his craft at great personal risk.
Possession
Possession: A Romance is a 1990 bestselling novel by British writer A. S. Byatt. It is a winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
Part historical as well as contemporary fiction, the title Possession refers both to issues of ownership and independence between lovers, and to the possession that a biographer feels of their subject. The novel incorporates many different styles and devices: diaries, letters and poetry, in addition to third-person narration. Possession is as concerned with the present day as it is with the Victorian era, pointing out the differences between the two time periods satirizing such things as modern academia and mating rituals.
Plot introduction
The novel concerns the relationship between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte, as revealed to present day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Following a trail of clues from various letters and journals, they attempt to uncover the truth about Ash and LaMotte's past before it is discovered by rival colleagues.
The use of the Epigraph
In Possession, an epigraph is used to head several chapters, particularly those early on in the book. Byatt uses it as a structural device, primarily for a substrative function, to outline the common themes which formulate in that particular chapter. Each epigraph serves to point the reader to important images or ideas that are going to be expanded upon throughout the chapter.
This is manifest in chapter one, wherein the epigraph is used to introduce the book. As the first thing a reader will see, it serves to incorporate not only those themes primarily used in that chapter, but also themes frequented throughout the novel as a whole. The most obvious point to make in regards to the epigraph heading the first chapter is the introduction of a "colour scheme."
Awards and nominations
1990 Booker Prize
1990 Irish Times-Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize
Film adaptation
The novel was adapted into a 2002 feature film called Possession starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Maud Bailey; Aaron Eckhart as Roland Michell; and Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle as the fictional poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte.
Part historical as well as contemporary fiction, the title Possession refers both to issues of ownership and independence between lovers, and to the possession that a biographer feels of their subject. The novel incorporates many different styles and devices: diaries, letters and poetry, in addition to third-person narration. Possession is as concerned with the present day as it is with the Victorian era, pointing out the differences between the two time periods satirizing such things as modern academia and mating rituals.
Plot introduction
The novel concerns the relationship between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte, as revealed to present day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Following a trail of clues from various letters and journals, they attempt to uncover the truth about Ash and LaMotte's past before it is discovered by rival colleagues.
The use of the Epigraph
In Possession, an epigraph is used to head several chapters, particularly those early on in the book. Byatt uses it as a structural device, primarily for a substrative function, to outline the common themes which formulate in that particular chapter. Each epigraph serves to point the reader to important images or ideas that are going to be expanded upon throughout the chapter.
This is manifest in chapter one, wherein the epigraph is used to introduce the book. As the first thing a reader will see, it serves to incorporate not only those themes primarily used in that chapter, but also themes frequented throughout the novel as a whole. The most obvious point to make in regards to the epigraph heading the first chapter is the introduction of a "colour scheme."
Awards and nominations
1990 Booker Prize
1990 Irish Times-Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize
Film adaptation
The novel was adapted into a 2002 feature film called Possession starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Maud Bailey; Aaron Eckhart as Roland Michell; and Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle as the fictional poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte.
10/04/2007
The Remains
The Remains of the Day (1989) is the third novel by Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It won the Booker prize in 1989.
Plot introduction
Like Ishiguro's previous two novels, the story is told from the first person point of view with the narrator recalling his life through a diary while progressing through the present. Various activities in the narrator's contemporary life make him recall more and more from his past.
The novel was Ishiguro's first not based in Japan or told from the point of view of a Japanese person, although his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, was told from the point of view of an elderly woman living in Britain and recalling her past in Japan.
Explanation of the title
1. "The Remains of the Day" refers to evening, when a character finds it the best time of day to reflect on a day's work. Evening is symbolic for older age, when one can look back and assess one's life work.
2. "The Remains of the Day" also refers to the last vestiges of Great Britain's grand houses.
Plot summary
The novel The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who dedicates his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (mentioned in increasing detail in flashbacks). The novel begins with Stevens receiving a letter from an ex co-worker called Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which he believes hints at her unhappy marriage. The receipt of the letter allows Stevens the opportunity to revisit this once-cherished relationship, if only under the guise of possible re-employment. Stevens' new employer, a wealthy American, Mr. Farraday, grants permission for Stevens to borrow a car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip." As he sets out, Stevens has opportunity to reflect on his unmoving loyalty to Lord Darlington, the meaning of the term "dignity", and even his relationship with his father. Ultimately Stevens is forced to ponder the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton. In ever-increasing hints, proof of Miss Kenton's love for Stevens is revealed.
During the course of employment during the years leading up to WWII, Stevens and Miss Kenton fail to admit to themselves and to each other, their true feelings in spite of working closely together under one roof, Darlington Hall, for many, many years. In fact, all of the recollected conversations show a professional friendship, which came close, but never dared, to cross the line to romance. What held back this development? The discussion and discovery of this is what moves the novel from merely a "good read" to fine literature.
Miss Kenton, it later emerges, has been married for over 20 years and therefore is no longer Miss Kenton, but Mrs. Benn. Although she admits to occasionally wondering what her life with Stevens might have been like, she declares that she has come to love her husband, despite having left him three times, and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. The reader wonders if Stevens refuses to admit he has missed his chance at love with Miss Kenton, and eventually realizes that Stevens' first-person narrative memories are naturally biased. Yet, because of Ishiguro's skilled writing, the reader is gradually able to deduce others' perspectives. Stevens is left with powerful self-reflection, feelings of loss and regret, loyalty and confusion, culminating in moving display of emotions at the end of the novel.
Characters in "The Remains of the Day"
Stevens – an English butler who serves in Darlington Hall
Miss Kenton – housekeeper, after her marriage Mrs. Benn
Lord Darlington – the previous, and now deceased owner of Darlington Hall
Mr Farraday – the new American employer of Stevens
Young Mr Cardinal – a journalist and the son of one of Lord Darlington's closest friends
Major themes
The novel is primarily concerned with the life of a British butler - his terseness and "dignity".
The British aristocracy is portrayed from within (through the butler himself). Lord Darlington holds conferences on international politics with ambassadors and politicians.
Anti-Semitism is expounded, with regards to Hitler. Under the influence of an outspoken Blackshirt supporter, Lord Darlington goes as far as to dismiss two Jewish housemaids, Elsa and Irma. He later regrets this action, and is troubled by his inability to redress the wrong. Later it is revealed that he attempted to improve Churchill's rapport with Hitler.
Conflict is another major theme within the novel, most of the interaction between the main characters, Mr Stevens and Miss Kenton is via the process of conflict and confrontation through their use of arguments.
An important sub-theme is the emotional disorder of the butler, Mr Stevens. As immersed as he is in the emotionally reserved British culture, he is unable to see Miss Kenton's love for him, or his for her, until years later when it is too late to do anything about it. It is only in the "remains of the day", the last years of his life, that he realises the extent of the emotional life that he has missed, and resolves to try to recapture some of it.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The major theme of the decline of the British aristocracy can be linked to the 1911 Parliament Act, which reduced the powers of the House of Lords, and to the substantial inheritance tax increases imposed after WWII which forced the break-up of many estates that had been passed down for generations.
The pro-Hitler stance of Lord Darlington has parallels in the warm relations with Germany favoured by some British aristocrats in the early 1930s, such as Lord Londonderry.
Awards and nominations
In 1989 the novel won the Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the English speaking world.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted into a 1993 film by Merchant Ivory Productions starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead.
A BBC Radio 4 adaptation in two hour-long episodes starring Ian McDiarmid was broadcast on August 8 and August 15, 2003.
Plot introduction
Like Ishiguro's previous two novels, the story is told from the first person point of view with the narrator recalling his life through a diary while progressing through the present. Various activities in the narrator's contemporary life make him recall more and more from his past.
The novel was Ishiguro's first not based in Japan or told from the point of view of a Japanese person, although his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, was told from the point of view of an elderly woman living in Britain and recalling her past in Japan.
Explanation of the title
1. "The Remains of the Day" refers to evening, when a character finds it the best time of day to reflect on a day's work. Evening is symbolic for older age, when one can look back and assess one's life work.
2. "The Remains of the Day" also refers to the last vestiges of Great Britain's grand houses.
Plot summary
The novel The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who dedicates his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (mentioned in increasing detail in flashbacks). The novel begins with Stevens receiving a letter from an ex co-worker called Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which he believes hints at her unhappy marriage. The receipt of the letter allows Stevens the opportunity to revisit this once-cherished relationship, if only under the guise of possible re-employment. Stevens' new employer, a wealthy American, Mr. Farraday, grants permission for Stevens to borrow a car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip." As he sets out, Stevens has opportunity to reflect on his unmoving loyalty to Lord Darlington, the meaning of the term "dignity", and even his relationship with his father. Ultimately Stevens is forced to ponder the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton. In ever-increasing hints, proof of Miss Kenton's love for Stevens is revealed.
During the course of employment during the years leading up to WWII, Stevens and Miss Kenton fail to admit to themselves and to each other, their true feelings in spite of working closely together under one roof, Darlington Hall, for many, many years. In fact, all of the recollected conversations show a professional friendship, which came close, but never dared, to cross the line to romance. What held back this development? The discussion and discovery of this is what moves the novel from merely a "good read" to fine literature.
Miss Kenton, it later emerges, has been married for over 20 years and therefore is no longer Miss Kenton, but Mrs. Benn. Although she admits to occasionally wondering what her life with Stevens might have been like, she declares that she has come to love her husband, despite having left him three times, and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. The reader wonders if Stevens refuses to admit he has missed his chance at love with Miss Kenton, and eventually realizes that Stevens' first-person narrative memories are naturally biased. Yet, because of Ishiguro's skilled writing, the reader is gradually able to deduce others' perspectives. Stevens is left with powerful self-reflection, feelings of loss and regret, loyalty and confusion, culminating in moving display of emotions at the end of the novel.
Characters in "The Remains of the Day"
Stevens – an English butler who serves in Darlington Hall
Miss Kenton – housekeeper, after her marriage Mrs. Benn
Lord Darlington – the previous, and now deceased owner of Darlington Hall
Mr Farraday – the new American employer of Stevens
Young Mr Cardinal – a journalist and the son of one of Lord Darlington's closest friends
Major themes
The novel is primarily concerned with the life of a British butler - his terseness and "dignity".
The British aristocracy is portrayed from within (through the butler himself). Lord Darlington holds conferences on international politics with ambassadors and politicians.
Anti-Semitism is expounded, with regards to Hitler. Under the influence of an outspoken Blackshirt supporter, Lord Darlington goes as far as to dismiss two Jewish housemaids, Elsa and Irma. He later regrets this action, and is troubled by his inability to redress the wrong. Later it is revealed that he attempted to improve Churchill's rapport with Hitler.
Conflict is another major theme within the novel, most of the interaction between the main characters, Mr Stevens and Miss Kenton is via the process of conflict and confrontation through their use of arguments.
An important sub-theme is the emotional disorder of the butler, Mr Stevens. As immersed as he is in the emotionally reserved British culture, he is unable to see Miss Kenton's love for him, or his for her, until years later when it is too late to do anything about it. It is only in the "remains of the day", the last years of his life, that he realises the extent of the emotional life that he has missed, and resolves to try to recapture some of it.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The major theme of the decline of the British aristocracy can be linked to the 1911 Parliament Act, which reduced the powers of the House of Lords, and to the substantial inheritance tax increases imposed after WWII which forced the break-up of many estates that had been passed down for generations.
The pro-Hitler stance of Lord Darlington has parallels in the warm relations with Germany favoured by some British aristocrats in the early 1930s, such as Lord Londonderry.
Awards and nominations
In 1989 the novel won the Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the English speaking world.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted into a 1993 film by Merchant Ivory Productions starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead.
A BBC Radio 4 adaptation in two hour-long episodes starring Ian McDiarmid was broadcast on August 8 and August 15, 2003.
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Peter Carey, which won the 1988 Booker Prize, and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award.
It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the son of a Brethren minister who becomes an English Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. They meet on the boat over to Australia, and discover that they are both obsessive gamblers. Lucinda bets Oscar that he cannot transport a glass church into the outback in one piece. This bet changes both their lives forever.
The novel partly takes its inspiration from Father and Son, the autobiography of the English poet Edmund Gosse, which describes his relationship with his father, Philip Henry Gosse.
A film was made from the book in 1997, directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett and Tom Wilkinson.
It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the son of a Brethren minister who becomes an English Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. They meet on the boat over to Australia, and discover that they are both obsessive gamblers. Lucinda bets Oscar that he cannot transport a glass church into the outback in one piece. This bet changes both their lives forever.
The novel partly takes its inspiration from Father and Son, the autobiography of the English poet Edmund Gosse, which describes his relationship with his father, Philip Henry Gosse.
A film was made from the book in 1997, directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett and Tom Wilkinson.
Moon Tiger
Moon Tiger is a 1987 novel by Penelope Lively which spans the time before, during and after World War II. The novel won the 1987 Booker Prize. It is written from multiple points of view and moves backward and forward through time in ways which can be difficult to follow. It begins as the story of a woman who, on her deathbed, decides to write a history of the world, and develops into a story of love, incest and the desire to be recognized as an independent free thinking woman of the time.
Plot summary
Claudia Hampton, a 76 year old English woman and a professional historian, is terminally ill and is spending her last remaining moments in and out of consciousness thinking of writing a history of the world with her life as a blueprint. Her first, primordial recollections are of a father that died in World War I, and of the summer of 1920, when she was 10 and competing with her 11 year old brother Gordon for fossils.
Claudia and Gordon are, throughout their lives, rivals, lovers, and best friends to each other. When the two are in their late teens, they begin having incestual relationship together, finding it hard to relate to almost any other person their own age. Soon, however, their college careers and other events allow both to open up to the outside world, and look outward for companionship.
At the outset of World War II, Gordon, a would-be economist, is sent to India, whereas Claudia sets aside her studies in history to become a war correspondent. Independent and enterprising, Claudia talks her way into a correspondent's post in Cairo, where she meets Tom Southern, a captain of an English armored tank division, who sweeps her off her feet.
Tom and Claudia spend a long weekend together while he's on vacation from the front, which culminates in both of them falling in love with each other and making plans for a seemingly far future. But their future together is never to materialize: shortly after their time together, the English are called to defend Egypt from Erwin Rommel's offensive at the First Battle of El Alamein, and Tom is declared missing. Later on, Claudia receives news that he has died.
Shortly after Tom's death, Claudia finds out she is pregnant, and decides that she will have the child, even though she would have to go it alone. It isn't to be: Claudia miscarries, and is never told whether the child she had carried was a boy or a girl. That uncertainty, along with her fear that Tom died a horrible and painful death, will haunt the rest of her life.
After the War, Claudia and Gordon reunite, but the encounter is more friendly than passionate. Each of them has obviously been changed by the War, but they are both sparse on actual details during their conversations. Gordon marries a girl named Sylvia, who Claudia finds insipid and boring. Claudia meanwhile met Jasper, a well connected young man who she goes on to have an on and off, rather stormy relationship with, and one that Gordon is openly disapproving of.
In 1948 Claudia finds herself pregnant again, this time by Jasper, and while she has no intention to marry him, she decides to have the child, Lisa. While Claudia loves Lisa, she finds she has little patience and time to care for a child, and so Lisa ultimately ends up being raised by her maternal and paternal grandmothers, who share her custody and dictate her upbringing. Not surprisingly, Lisa grows up sullen and indifferent to Claudia, and marries off at a young age to a respectable (boring) man.
Throughout her travels abroad, Claudia comes in contact with an Hungarian functionary who becomes implicated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Knowing that persecution is forthcoming, the functionary decides to ask Claudia to make sure that his son Lazlo, who is in England at college, does not attempt to return to Hungary. So Claudia becomes a sort of surrogate mother to Lazlo, who she grows to love and admire over the years, recognizing that he is drastically different from anyone else she knows: an open, painfully honest, sensitive, self-destructive artist.
Claudia writes several books that attempt to popularize history for the masses, earning her accolades from the public, and scorn from other professional historians. She also briefly becomes a consultant for a movie based on her history of Cortez, which leads to a personal scandal, when she ends up in a car accident with the star of the movie, and the press suspects there is more to the relationship than just friendship. The event earns scorn from Jasper, who refuses to see her when she's in the hospital. Gordon, on the other hand, visits her to let her know that she's not alone.
At some point in time, Claudia decides to travel to Egypt alone, to try and see Cairo again, but she finds things much changed. The only thing that has not changed is that the desert has become forever etched in her memory as synonymous with her pain at everything she experienced during the war, a pain that she's still unable to share with any other living soul even after all the years that have passed.
When Claudia turns 70, she receives a package containing Tom's diary, one of the few personal effects of Tom's recovered from the war. It had been sent to Claudia by Jennifer Southern, Tom's sister, who decides that Claudia should have it upon realizing that Claudia is "C.", Tom's often referred to girlfriend. Claudia cannot muster the courage to read beyond the note accompanying the diary, and so sets the book aside.
Shortly thereafter, Gordon dies, and leaves a gaping void in Claudia's life. A few years later, when she is diagnosed with cancer, and knowing death is imminent, she tries to tentatively reach out to Lisa, to apologize for having been a cold and distant mother. Lisa accepts the apology, but is not sure how to feel about it: it is the most unlikely thing Claudia (who to Lisa seemed to revel being an almost omnipotent figure), has ever done for Lisa.
Right before dying, Claudia finally musters the courage to ask Lazlo to fetch her Tom's diary. Poring over the short entries in the diary, Claudia allows herself to reflect on her bitterness about having been left behind and having become wholly different from the woman she knew and loved, and to make peace with the fact that she too will soon become nothing more than a set of imperfect memories as recalled by those who knew her. The next day, Claudia passes away.
Plot summary
Claudia Hampton, a 76 year old English woman and a professional historian, is terminally ill and is spending her last remaining moments in and out of consciousness thinking of writing a history of the world with her life as a blueprint. Her first, primordial recollections are of a father that died in World War I, and of the summer of 1920, when she was 10 and competing with her 11 year old brother Gordon for fossils.
Claudia and Gordon are, throughout their lives, rivals, lovers, and best friends to each other. When the two are in their late teens, they begin having incestual relationship together, finding it hard to relate to almost any other person their own age. Soon, however, their college careers and other events allow both to open up to the outside world, and look outward for companionship.
At the outset of World War II, Gordon, a would-be economist, is sent to India, whereas Claudia sets aside her studies in history to become a war correspondent. Independent and enterprising, Claudia talks her way into a correspondent's post in Cairo, where she meets Tom Southern, a captain of an English armored tank division, who sweeps her off her feet.
Tom and Claudia spend a long weekend together while he's on vacation from the front, which culminates in both of them falling in love with each other and making plans for a seemingly far future. But their future together is never to materialize: shortly after their time together, the English are called to defend Egypt from Erwin Rommel's offensive at the First Battle of El Alamein, and Tom is declared missing. Later on, Claudia receives news that he has died.
Shortly after Tom's death, Claudia finds out she is pregnant, and decides that she will have the child, even though she would have to go it alone. It isn't to be: Claudia miscarries, and is never told whether the child she had carried was a boy or a girl. That uncertainty, along with her fear that Tom died a horrible and painful death, will haunt the rest of her life.
After the War, Claudia and Gordon reunite, but the encounter is more friendly than passionate. Each of them has obviously been changed by the War, but they are both sparse on actual details during their conversations. Gordon marries a girl named Sylvia, who Claudia finds insipid and boring. Claudia meanwhile met Jasper, a well connected young man who she goes on to have an on and off, rather stormy relationship with, and one that Gordon is openly disapproving of.
In 1948 Claudia finds herself pregnant again, this time by Jasper, and while she has no intention to marry him, she decides to have the child, Lisa. While Claudia loves Lisa, she finds she has little patience and time to care for a child, and so Lisa ultimately ends up being raised by her maternal and paternal grandmothers, who share her custody and dictate her upbringing. Not surprisingly, Lisa grows up sullen and indifferent to Claudia, and marries off at a young age to a respectable (boring) man.
Throughout her travels abroad, Claudia comes in contact with an Hungarian functionary who becomes implicated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Knowing that persecution is forthcoming, the functionary decides to ask Claudia to make sure that his son Lazlo, who is in England at college, does not attempt to return to Hungary. So Claudia becomes a sort of surrogate mother to Lazlo, who she grows to love and admire over the years, recognizing that he is drastically different from anyone else she knows: an open, painfully honest, sensitive, self-destructive artist.
Claudia writes several books that attempt to popularize history for the masses, earning her accolades from the public, and scorn from other professional historians. She also briefly becomes a consultant for a movie based on her history of Cortez, which leads to a personal scandal, when she ends up in a car accident with the star of the movie, and the press suspects there is more to the relationship than just friendship. The event earns scorn from Jasper, who refuses to see her when she's in the hospital. Gordon, on the other hand, visits her to let her know that she's not alone.
At some point in time, Claudia decides to travel to Egypt alone, to try and see Cairo again, but she finds things much changed. The only thing that has not changed is that the desert has become forever etched in her memory as synonymous with her pain at everything she experienced during the war, a pain that she's still unable to share with any other living soul even after all the years that have passed.
When Claudia turns 70, she receives a package containing Tom's diary, one of the few personal effects of Tom's recovered from the war. It had been sent to Claudia by Jennifer Southern, Tom's sister, who decides that Claudia should have it upon realizing that Claudia is "C.", Tom's often referred to girlfriend. Claudia cannot muster the courage to read beyond the note accompanying the diary, and so sets the book aside.
Shortly thereafter, Gordon dies, and leaves a gaping void in Claudia's life. A few years later, when she is diagnosed with cancer, and knowing death is imminent, she tries to tentatively reach out to Lisa, to apologize for having been a cold and distant mother. Lisa accepts the apology, but is not sure how to feel about it: it is the most unlikely thing Claudia (who to Lisa seemed to revel being an almost omnipotent figure), has ever done for Lisa.
Right before dying, Claudia finally musters the courage to ask Lazlo to fetch her Tom's diary. Poring over the short entries in the diary, Claudia allows herself to reflect on her bitterness about having been left behind and having become wholly different from the woman she knew and loved, and to make peace with the fact that she too will soon become nothing more than a set of imperfect memories as recalled by those who knew her. The next day, Claudia passes away.
The Old Devils
The Old Devils is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize. It was adapted for television by Andrew Davies for the BBC in 1992, starring John Stride, Bernard Hepton, James Grout and Ray Smith (it was the latter's last screen appearance before his death). Amis's son, Martin, has said that he considers this his father's finest work.
Alun Weaver, a notable but obnoxious author, returns to his native Wales with his wife Rhiannon, sometime girlfriend of Weaver's old acquaintance Peter Thomas. Weaver begins associating with a group of former friends, all of whom have continued to live locally while he was away. As well as Thomas, they include Malcolm Cellan-Davies and the alcoholic Charlie Norris. While drinking in the house of another acquaintance, Weaver drops dead, leaving the rest of the group to pick up the pieces of their brief reunion.
Alun Weaver, a notable but obnoxious author, returns to his native Wales with his wife Rhiannon, sometime girlfriend of Weaver's old acquaintance Peter Thomas. Weaver begins associating with a group of former friends, all of whom have continued to live locally while he was away. As well as Thomas, they include Malcolm Cellan-Davies and the alcoholic Charlie Norris. While drinking in the house of another acquaintance, Weaver drops dead, leaving the rest of the group to pick up the pieces of their brief reunion.
The Bone People
The Bone People is a 1984 novel by New Zealand author Keri Hulme.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title The Bone People draws parallels between Māori, who use bone extensively in art and tools, and the notion of the core or skeleton of a person: in the novel the characters are figuratively stripped to the bone. Also, in the novel, "E nga iwi o nga iwi," p. 395, translates to "O the bones of the people" (where 'bones' stands for ancestors or relations), but it also translates to "O the people of the bones" (i.e. the beginning people, the people who make another people).
Plot summary
The book is divided into two major sections, the first involving the characters interacting, and the second half involving their individual travels. In the first half, 8-year-old Simon shows up at the hermit Kerewin’s tower on a dark and stormy night. Simon is mute and thus is unable to explain his motives. When Simon’s adoptive father Joe comes to collect him in the morning, Kerewin learns their unusual story. Simon was found washed up on the beach years earlier with no memory and very few clues as to his identity. Joe and his wife Hana take in Simon, despite his apparently dark background, and attempt to raise him. However, both Hana and Hana and Joe's infant son die soon after, leaving Joe alone to raise the wild boy Simon.
Kerewin finds herself developing a relationship with both the boy and the father, becoming more involved in their lives and stories. However, it gradually becomes clear that Simon is a severely traumatised boy, whose behaviours Joe is unable to cope with. Kerewin eventually finds that, despite a constant and intense love between them, Joe is physically abusing Simon, apparently continuing in the footsteps of his blood parents.
Following a catalyst event, the three are driven violently apart. Simon witnesses a violent death and goes to Kerewin, but she is angry with him for stealing some of her possessions and will not listen. He reacts by kicking in the side of her guitar, a much prized gift from her estranged family, whereupon she throws him out. He then goes to the town and breaks a series of public property windows. When he is returned home by the police, Joe beats him half to death. Simon however has concealed a piece of glass and stabs his father with it, resulting in the hospitalization of both.
In the second half of the novel, Simon is in the hospital, Joe is being sent to jail for child abuse, and Kerewin is seriously and inexplicably ill. Simon's wardship is being taken from Joe, a move strongly resisted by all three of the trio, despite their violent relationship. Simon is sent to a children's home, Joe to jail, and Kerewin deconstructs her tower and leaves, expecting to be dead within the year.
All three experience life-changing events, strongly interlaced with Maori mythology and legend, eventually leading to their healing and return. Kerewin adopts Simon, to keep him both near to and protected from Joe, while Joe is able to contact Kerewin's family and bring them back for a reunion of forgiveness. In the final segment of the book, Kerewin adopts a blind cat known as Li, or balance, seemingly representing the path they have travelled.
Characters in "The Bone People"
Kerewin Holmes - Kerewin is a reclusive artist who is running away from her past. The character's name seems intentionally similar to the author’s. This could mean that the author wishes for some reason to draw parallels between herself and Kerewin. Kerewin also shares the author's appearance and lifestyle, but the character's realism and obvious flaws such as short-temperedness and alcoholism suggest that Kerewin is not a Mary Sue.
Kerewin was a powerful painter. She has suffered painter’s block since having a lottery win, building her tower and falling out with her family. She doubts her value and her abilities because she can no longer paint.
Kerewin wants to help Simon discover his past, wants Joe to stop beating Simon and wants all other people to leave her alone. Kerewin is an unusual for a female character, having a strong desire for isolation and no difficulty in taking a dominant role where her sense of justice demands it.
Joe Gillayley - Joe is the adoptive father of Simon. He is very intelligent and spiritual, but blinded in his judgement, particularly in relation to his raising of Simon, by his alcoholism. Joe seems to both love and respect Kerewin, but also compete with her. He is deeply scarred by his wife's death, contributing to his alcoholism.
Simon P. Gillayley - Simon is a mute child who displays an immense interest in details of the world around him. He exhibits kleptomania, and shows exceptional intelligence and talent in some areas whilst having an apparent inability to perceive others' emotions, perhaps suggestive of a type of autism such as Asperger's syndrome.
The name Simon could be a reference to the disciple Simon Peter, who witnesses Jesus' revival of Jairus' daughter (Kerewin revives herself and is godlike) and was a fisherman (Simon was found washed upon the shore from the wreckage of a fishing boat). The Christian explanation is evident in the tricephalos Kerewin creates portraying herself, Joe and Simon. Joe calls Simon Himi or Haimona, both Māori translations of Simon.
Simon’s judgment and understand of how to behave are poorly formed because his adoptive father Joe has placed him in a double bind by beating him when he is bad and also for no reason at all.
Simon has a deep attachment to both Joe and Kerewin, but shows his love in odd ways because of his upbringing. Simon is isolated from others primarily by his inability to speak: others mistake his muteness for stupidity.
Major themes
The novel exhibits major Christian themes, most notably in its symbolism of Simon as a Christlike figure. He is a powerless figure, repeatedly abused and subjected to extreme violence and trauma, yet is continually forgiving, and in the words of Joe, "[He] does not hate."
Joe and Kerewin perpetuate the biblical imagery. Kerewin is a literal virgin; she has not engaged in sexual contact throughout her life, yet takes on a motherly aspect towards Simon, as did the Virgin Mary. Similarly, Joe appears a parallel to the biblical Joseph; he is not the blood father of Simon, yet willingly takes on his care and parenting.
Isolation is one of the major themes of The Bone People. Kerewin isolates herself from the world in her tower; Simon is isolated from the world by his inability to speak; Joe is isolated by his grief. Characters' motivations are shown to the reader through paragraphs that detail their thoughts, which serve to illustrate how their isolation leads to misunderstanding.
Awards and nominations
The Bone People won both the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Pegasus Prize for Literature in 1985.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title The Bone People draws parallels between Māori, who use bone extensively in art and tools, and the notion of the core or skeleton of a person: in the novel the characters are figuratively stripped to the bone. Also, in the novel, "E nga iwi o nga iwi," p. 395, translates to "O the bones of the people" (where 'bones' stands for ancestors or relations), but it also translates to "O the people of the bones" (i.e. the beginning people, the people who make another people).
Plot summary
The book is divided into two major sections, the first involving the characters interacting, and the second half involving their individual travels. In the first half, 8-year-old Simon shows up at the hermit Kerewin’s tower on a dark and stormy night. Simon is mute and thus is unable to explain his motives. When Simon’s adoptive father Joe comes to collect him in the morning, Kerewin learns their unusual story. Simon was found washed up on the beach years earlier with no memory and very few clues as to his identity. Joe and his wife Hana take in Simon, despite his apparently dark background, and attempt to raise him. However, both Hana and Hana and Joe's infant son die soon after, leaving Joe alone to raise the wild boy Simon.
Kerewin finds herself developing a relationship with both the boy and the father, becoming more involved in their lives and stories. However, it gradually becomes clear that Simon is a severely traumatised boy, whose behaviours Joe is unable to cope with. Kerewin eventually finds that, despite a constant and intense love between them, Joe is physically abusing Simon, apparently continuing in the footsteps of his blood parents.
Following a catalyst event, the three are driven violently apart. Simon witnesses a violent death and goes to Kerewin, but she is angry with him for stealing some of her possessions and will not listen. He reacts by kicking in the side of her guitar, a much prized gift from her estranged family, whereupon she throws him out. He then goes to the town and breaks a series of public property windows. When he is returned home by the police, Joe beats him half to death. Simon however has concealed a piece of glass and stabs his father with it, resulting in the hospitalization of both.
In the second half of the novel, Simon is in the hospital, Joe is being sent to jail for child abuse, and Kerewin is seriously and inexplicably ill. Simon's wardship is being taken from Joe, a move strongly resisted by all three of the trio, despite their violent relationship. Simon is sent to a children's home, Joe to jail, and Kerewin deconstructs her tower and leaves, expecting to be dead within the year.
All three experience life-changing events, strongly interlaced with Maori mythology and legend, eventually leading to their healing and return. Kerewin adopts Simon, to keep him both near to and protected from Joe, while Joe is able to contact Kerewin's family and bring them back for a reunion of forgiveness. In the final segment of the book, Kerewin adopts a blind cat known as Li, or balance, seemingly representing the path they have travelled.
Characters in "The Bone People"
Kerewin Holmes - Kerewin is a reclusive artist who is running away from her past. The character's name seems intentionally similar to the author’s. This could mean that the author wishes for some reason to draw parallels between herself and Kerewin. Kerewin also shares the author's appearance and lifestyle, but the character's realism and obvious flaws such as short-temperedness and alcoholism suggest that Kerewin is not a Mary Sue.
Kerewin was a powerful painter. She has suffered painter’s block since having a lottery win, building her tower and falling out with her family. She doubts her value and her abilities because she can no longer paint.
Kerewin wants to help Simon discover his past, wants Joe to stop beating Simon and wants all other people to leave her alone. Kerewin is an unusual for a female character, having a strong desire for isolation and no difficulty in taking a dominant role where her sense of justice demands it.
Joe Gillayley - Joe is the adoptive father of Simon. He is very intelligent and spiritual, but blinded in his judgement, particularly in relation to his raising of Simon, by his alcoholism. Joe seems to both love and respect Kerewin, but also compete with her. He is deeply scarred by his wife's death, contributing to his alcoholism.
Simon P. Gillayley - Simon is a mute child who displays an immense interest in details of the world around him. He exhibits kleptomania, and shows exceptional intelligence and talent in some areas whilst having an apparent inability to perceive others' emotions, perhaps suggestive of a type of autism such as Asperger's syndrome.
The name Simon could be a reference to the disciple Simon Peter, who witnesses Jesus' revival of Jairus' daughter (Kerewin revives herself and is godlike) and was a fisherman (Simon was found washed upon the shore from the wreckage of a fishing boat). The Christian explanation is evident in the tricephalos Kerewin creates portraying herself, Joe and Simon. Joe calls Simon Himi or Haimona, both Māori translations of Simon.
Simon’s judgment and understand of how to behave are poorly formed because his adoptive father Joe has placed him in a double bind by beating him when he is bad and also for no reason at all.
Simon has a deep attachment to both Joe and Kerewin, but shows his love in odd ways because of his upbringing. Simon is isolated from others primarily by his inability to speak: others mistake his muteness for stupidity.
Major themes
The novel exhibits major Christian themes, most notably in its symbolism of Simon as a Christlike figure. He is a powerless figure, repeatedly abused and subjected to extreme violence and trauma, yet is continually forgiving, and in the words of Joe, "[He] does not hate."
Joe and Kerewin perpetuate the biblical imagery. Kerewin is a literal virgin; she has not engaged in sexual contact throughout her life, yet takes on a motherly aspect towards Simon, as did the Virgin Mary. Similarly, Joe appears a parallel to the biblical Joseph; he is not the blood father of Simon, yet willingly takes on his care and parenting.
Isolation is one of the major themes of The Bone People. Kerewin isolates herself from the world in her tower; Simon is isolated from the world by his inability to speak; Joe is isolated by his grief. Characters' motivations are shown to the reader through paragraphs that detail their thoughts, which serve to illustrate how their isolation leads to misunderstanding.
Awards and nominations
The Bone People won both the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Pegasus Prize for Literature in 1985.
9/30/2007
Hotel du Lac
Hotel du Lac is a Booker Prize winning novel (1984) by Anita Brookner.
Plot introduction
Romantic novelist Edith Hope is staying in a hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva, where her friends have advised her to retreat following an unfortunate incident. There she meets other English visitors, including Mrs Pusey and her daughter Jennifer, and an attractive middle-aged man, Mr Neville. She rejects the possibility of a relationship with the latter when she realises he is an incorrigible womanizer.
Edith reaches Hotel Du Lac in a state of bewildered confusion at the turn of events in her life, a secret and often lonely affair with a married man, and an aborted marriage later, she is banished by her friends; who advise her to go on "probation" so as to "grow up", and "be a woman", atoning for her mistake.
Edith comes to the hotel swearing not to change, and yet, the silent charms of the hotel; observing people at different walks of their lives- Mrs. Pusey and her daughter, Jennifer, their love, and the splendid oblivious lives they live. Mme De Bonneuil, who lives at the hotel in solitary expulsion, from her son. Monica, come to the hotel for her husband's demands- all tug at Edith with questions of her identity, forcing her to examine who she is, and what she has been. She falls for the "ambiguous" smile of Mr. Neville, who asks for her hand, but finally realizing what her life is expected to be, once again, she breaks chains, and decides to take things in her own hands.
Awards and nominations
The novel won the Booker Prize in 1984.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A television adaptation of the novel by Christopher Hampton was produced by the BBC and A&E Television Networks in 1986, and aired in the UK on 2 March 1986. It was directed by Giles Foster, produced by Sue Birtwistle with music by Carl Davis and cinematography by Kenneth MacMillan. The televised play stars Anna Massey as Edith Hope and Denholm Elliott as Philip Neville with Googie Withers, Julia McKenzie, Patricia Hodge, Irene Handl and Barry Foster (actor).
The TV play was nominated for 9 BAFTA Awards and won three: Best Actress (Anna Massey), Best Film Editor (Dick Allen) and Best Single Drama (Sue Birtwistle and Giles Foster).
Plot introduction
Romantic novelist Edith Hope is staying in a hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva, where her friends have advised her to retreat following an unfortunate incident. There she meets other English visitors, including Mrs Pusey and her daughter Jennifer, and an attractive middle-aged man, Mr Neville. She rejects the possibility of a relationship with the latter when she realises he is an incorrigible womanizer.
Edith reaches Hotel Du Lac in a state of bewildered confusion at the turn of events in her life, a secret and often lonely affair with a married man, and an aborted marriage later, she is banished by her friends; who advise her to go on "probation" so as to "grow up", and "be a woman", atoning for her mistake.
Edith comes to the hotel swearing not to change, and yet, the silent charms of the hotel; observing people at different walks of their lives- Mrs. Pusey and her daughter, Jennifer, their love, and the splendid oblivious lives they live. Mme De Bonneuil, who lives at the hotel in solitary expulsion, from her son. Monica, come to the hotel for her husband's demands- all tug at Edith with questions of her identity, forcing her to examine who she is, and what she has been. She falls for the "ambiguous" smile of Mr. Neville, who asks for her hand, but finally realizing what her life is expected to be, once again, she breaks chains, and decides to take things in her own hands.
Awards and nominations
The novel won the Booker Prize in 1984.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A television adaptation of the novel by Christopher Hampton was produced by the BBC and A&E Television Networks in 1986, and aired in the UK on 2 March 1986. It was directed by Giles Foster, produced by Sue Birtwistle with music by Carl Davis and cinematography by Kenneth MacMillan. The televised play stars Anna Massey as Edith Hope and Denholm Elliott as Philip Neville with Googie Withers, Julia McKenzie, Patricia Hodge, Irene Handl and Barry Foster (actor).
The TV play was nominated for 9 BAFTA Awards and won three: Best Actress (Anna Massey), Best Film Editor (Dick Allen) and Best Single Drama (Sue Birtwistle and Giles Foster).
Life & Times of Michael K
Life & Times of Michael K is a 1983 novel by J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2003. The book itself won the Booker Prize for 1983. The novel is a story of a hare-lipped, simple gardener Michael K, who makes an arduous journey from civil war-ridden urban South Africa to his mother's rural birthplace, during an imagined near-future within the apartheid era. His journey starts in the devastated city of Cape Town, from where he literally carts his ailing mother to her childhood home in the rural Prince Albert. On the way there, she dies in a hospital, leaving him alone.
Plot summary
After her death, she is cremated and the ashes given to him. He vows to return them to her birthplace. He begins a long, ardous journey across the country to her childhood farm, sleeping rough and enduring many hardships along the way. The country is in war, and he sees many convoys going past. One of the soldiers ransacks his belongings and takes his money.
Eventually he reaches the place of his destination and finds the place deserted, the owners long gone. He scatters the ashes on the ground and takes up residence there. He kills goats and birds for food and drinks from the nearby dam. A member from the old family comes and wanting to escape the war, hides in the farmhouse. He survives on mealies and pumpkins, however, he is soon caught by the police who suspects him of aiding arsonists hiding in the mountains, and he is taken to a rehab center, where the doctor motivates him to tell his story, deeply moved by the man, K. However, K manages to escape back to Cape Town, where he settles down from where he started, realising his life, and his connection to the earth.
Some commentators notice a connection between the character Michael K and the protagonist Josef K. in The Trial by Franz Kafka. The book also bears many references to Kafka, and it is believed, "K" is a tribute to Kafka.
Plot summary
After her death, she is cremated and the ashes given to him. He vows to return them to her birthplace. He begins a long, ardous journey across the country to her childhood farm, sleeping rough and enduring many hardships along the way. The country is in war, and he sees many convoys going past. One of the soldiers ransacks his belongings and takes his money.
Eventually he reaches the place of his destination and finds the place deserted, the owners long gone. He scatters the ashes on the ground and takes up residence there. He kills goats and birds for food and drinks from the nearby dam. A member from the old family comes and wanting to escape the war, hides in the farmhouse. He survives on mealies and pumpkins, however, he is soon caught by the police who suspects him of aiding arsonists hiding in the mountains, and he is taken to a rehab center, where the doctor motivates him to tell his story, deeply moved by the man, K. However, K manages to escape back to Cape Town, where he settles down from where he started, realising his life, and his connection to the earth.
Some commentators notice a connection between the character Michael K and the protagonist Josef K. in The Trial by Franz Kafka. The book also bears many references to Kafka, and it is believed, "K" is a tribute to Kafka.
Schindler's Ark
Schindler's Ark is a Booker Prize winning novel (1982) by Thomas Keneally, which was later adapted into the highly successful movie Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg. The United States version of the book was called Schindler's List from the beginning; it was later re-issued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well.
Although Schindler's Ark is based on actual people and events, it is classified as fiction. The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member, who turns into the unlikely hero. By the end of the war, Schindler has saved 1100 Jews from concentration camps all over Poland and Germany. While the author wrote a number of well received novels before this book, this book was monumental and every book after this was shadowed by it.
Inspiration
Keneally was inspired to write the book by Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. After the war, Pfefferberg had tried on a number of occasions to interest the screen-writers and film-makers he met through his business in a film based on the story of Schindler and his actions in saving Polish Jews from the Nazis, arranging several interviews with Schindler for American television.
In 1980 Pfefferberg met Keneally in his shop, and, learning that he was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Schindler. Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Kraków and the sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicated Schindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."
After the publication of Schindler's Ark in 1982, Pfefferberg worked to persuade Steven Spielberg to film Kenneally's book, using his acquaintance with Spielberg's mother to gain access. The awarding of the Booker prize caused some controversy at the time. As the award is for the best fiction, it was debated on whether Keneally wrote fiction or was simply reporting on history.
Story Line
This book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine. Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story is unbearably moving but never melodramatic, a testament to the almost unimaginable horrors of Hitler's attempts to make Europe judenfrei. What distinguishes Schindler in Keneally's version is not, superficially, kindness or idealism, but a certain gusto. He is a flawed hero, he is not "without sin". He is a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer. After the war, he is commemorated as a "Righteous Person" at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but he is never seen as a conventionally virtuous character[3] The story is not only Schindler's. It is the story of Cracow's dying ghetto and the forced labor camp outside of town, at Plaszow. It is the story of Amon Goeth, Plaszow's commandant and Schindler's dark twin
His wife Emilie remarked in a German TV interview that Schindler did nothing remarkable before the war and nothing after it. "He was fortunate therefore that in the short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who had summoned forth his deeper talents." After the war, his business ventures fail, he separates from his long-suffering wife, and he ends up living a dishevelled life in a small flat in Frankfurt. Eventually he arranged to live part of the year in Israel, supported by his Jewish friends, and part of the year as a sort of internal emigre in Frankfurt, where he was often hissed in the streets as a traitor to his race. After 29 unexceptional years he died in 1974.
In his 1980 novel, Confederates, Mr. Keneally recreated the American South during the Civil War in all its concreteness and lilt of language, surely a stunning feat for an Australian Irishman. This feat was repeated by the author more tellingly in this book. It reads as a novel, but is backed by detailed research by the author from archives in Yad Vashem, The Martyr's and Hero's Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem. He has given Oskar Schindler the stunning reality of a man who was neither good nor virtuous but a genius of life, a savior.
Although Schindler's Ark is based on actual people and events, it is classified as fiction. The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member, who turns into the unlikely hero. By the end of the war, Schindler has saved 1100 Jews from concentration camps all over Poland and Germany. While the author wrote a number of well received novels before this book, this book was monumental and every book after this was shadowed by it.
Inspiration
Keneally was inspired to write the book by Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. After the war, Pfefferberg had tried on a number of occasions to interest the screen-writers and film-makers he met through his business in a film based on the story of Schindler and his actions in saving Polish Jews from the Nazis, arranging several interviews with Schindler for American television.
In 1980 Pfefferberg met Keneally in his shop, and, learning that he was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Schindler. Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Kraków and the sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicated Schindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."
After the publication of Schindler's Ark in 1982, Pfefferberg worked to persuade Steven Spielberg to film Kenneally's book, using his acquaintance with Spielberg's mother to gain access. The awarding of the Booker prize caused some controversy at the time. As the award is for the best fiction, it was debated on whether Keneally wrote fiction or was simply reporting on history.
Story Line
This book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine. Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story is unbearably moving but never melodramatic, a testament to the almost unimaginable horrors of Hitler's attempts to make Europe judenfrei. What distinguishes Schindler in Keneally's version is not, superficially, kindness or idealism, but a certain gusto. He is a flawed hero, he is not "without sin". He is a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer. After the war, he is commemorated as a "Righteous Person" at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but he is never seen as a conventionally virtuous character[3] The story is not only Schindler's. It is the story of Cracow's dying ghetto and the forced labor camp outside of town, at Plaszow. It is the story of Amon Goeth, Plaszow's commandant and Schindler's dark twin
His wife Emilie remarked in a German TV interview that Schindler did nothing remarkable before the war and nothing after it. "He was fortunate therefore that in the short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who had summoned forth his deeper talents." After the war, his business ventures fail, he separates from his long-suffering wife, and he ends up living a dishevelled life in a small flat in Frankfurt. Eventually he arranged to live part of the year in Israel, supported by his Jewish friends, and part of the year as a sort of internal emigre in Frankfurt, where he was often hissed in the streets as a traitor to his race. After 29 unexceptional years he died in 1974.
In his 1980 novel, Confederates, Mr. Keneally recreated the American South during the Civil War in all its concreteness and lilt of language, surely a stunning feat for an Australian Irishman. This feat was repeated by the author more tellingly in this book. It reads as a novel, but is backed by detailed research by the author from archives in Yad Vashem, The Martyr's and Hero's Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem. He has given Oskar Schindler the stunning reality of a man who was neither good nor virtuous but a genius of life, a savior.
Midnight's Children
Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. It centres on the author's native India and was acclaimed as a major milestone in postcolonial literature.
It won both the 1981 Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the same year. The book was later awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' Prize in 1993 as the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. Midnight's Children is also the only Indian novel on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels since its founding in 1923.
Plot introduction
Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India, which took place at midnight on 15 August 1947. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent. Saleem Sinai's life then parallels the changing fortunes of the country after independence.
Plot summary
Characters in "Midnight's Children"
Saleem Sinai - The protagonist and narrator, Saleem Sinai is a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent.
Jamila Singer - Saleem's sister, named Jamila Sinai at birth, nicknamed the Brass Monkey during her childhood. She goes on to become the most famous singer in all of Pakistan.
Aadam Aziz - Aadam Aziz is a doctor and the father of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz. He has many children with Naseem Ghani, and struggles with questions of the existence of God throughout his life.
Tai - A boatman, Tai is a friend of Aadam Aziz. At times he demonstrates his ability to predict the future and, while most people consider him insane, he in fact makes several insightful remarks, the most important of which is his advice to Aadam Aziz to "follow his nose."
Naseem Ghani - Naseem Ghani is the daughter of a landlord and the mother of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz Aziz. She is a dramatic and strong-willed character who possesses a lot of power in her relationship with her husband Aadam Aziz.
Ghani the landowner - Naseem's father.
Padma Mangroli - Saleem's lover and, eventually, his fiancée, Padma plays the role of the listener in the storytelling structure of the novel.
Oskar and Ilse Lubin - German anarchist friends of Doctor Aziz.
Alia - The sister of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz, Alia suffers from a lifelong love for Ahmed Sinai, whom her sister Mumtaz marries. Her resentment toward her sister manifests itself in the meals she cooks, and therefore affects those who eat what she prepares.
Mumtaz - Mumtaz, the sister of Alia, has her name changed to Amina when she gets married. Rushdie repeatedly describes Amina Sinai as "assiduous" in her wifely efforts. By sheer willpower, she forces herself to love her husband Ahmed Sinai. However, during her marriage to him she also has an affair with Nadir Khan, to whom she was married for two years in her youth, although they never consummated the marriage.
Hanif - Saleem's uncle Hanif is a screenwriter who enjoys some fame in his youth, but who grows disillusioned later in life with Bollywood and the superficiality of the film industry, and commits suicide.
Mustapha - Saleem's uncle, the brother of Mumtaz, marries Sonia.
Emerald - Saleem's aunt, the sister of Mumtaz, marries General Zulfikar.
Mian Abdullah - A pro-Indian Muslim political figure, who dies at the hands of assassins.
Nadir Khan - Mumtaz's first husband, Nadir Khan is the Hummingbird's personal secretary. After the Hummingbird's assassination, Nadir hides in the Aziz household for a few years, where he has a relationship with Mumtaz.
Rashid the rickshaw boy - A boy who informs Doctor Aziz that Nadir Khan needs a place to hide.
General Zulfikar - The husband of Emerald, who is involved with Pakistani political events.
Lifafa Das - A peep show street man who leads Amina to seer.
Shri Ramram Seth - A seer Amina visits while pregnant.
William Methwold - An Englishman from whom the Sinais buy their house in Bombay.
Ahmed Sinai - Saleem's father and Amina's husband.
Wee Willie Winkie - Shiva's father and Vanita's husband, Saleem's biological father.
Vanita - Saleem's biological mother, who dies during labor.
Mary Pereira - A midwife and servant, who switches Shiva and Saleem at birth.
Doctor Narlikar - A Gynecologist and businessman.
Evie Lilith Burns - Saleem's American childhood sweetheart.
Sonny Ibrahim - Saleem's neighbor and friend.
Joseph D'Costa - Mary Pereira's lover, who is politically radical.
Shiva - A boy who is born at the same moment as Saleem. They are switched at birth, and Shiva possesses an amazing ability to fight.
Parvati-the-witch - One of midnight's children, and a friend (and wife)of Saleem.
Homi Catrack - A man who has an affair with Lila Sabarmati and is subsequently murdered by Commander Sabarmati.
Lila Sabarmati - Commander Sabarmati's wife, who is shot, but not killed, by him for having an affair with Homi Catrack.
Commander Sabarmati - The husband of Lila Sabarmati who shoots his unfaithful wife and murders her lover.
Alice Pereira - Mary's sister, who works for Ahmed Sinai.
Uncle Puffs - Jamila Singer's agent.
Tai Bibi - A 512-year-old whore who Saleem visits.
Farooq, Shaheed, and Ayooba - Saleem's fellow soldiers in the Pakistani army.
Sonia - Mustapha's wife
Durga - A wet nurse for Aadam Sinai and a succubus to Picture Singh.
Aadam Sinai - Saleem's son. (Shiva's biological son)
Picture Singh - A snake charmer and a friend to Saleem.
Major themes
The technique of magical realism finds liberal expression throughout the novel and is crucial to constructing the parallel to the country's history. It has thus been compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
The narrative framework of Midnight's Children consists of a tale -- comprising his life story -- which Saleem Sinai recounts orally to his wife-to-be Padma. This self-referential narrative (within a single paragraph Saleem refers to himself in the first person: 'And I, wishing upon myself the curse of Nadir Khan. ...'; ' "I tell you," Saleem cried, "it is true. ..."') recalls indigenous Indian culture, particularly the similarly orally recounted Arabian Nights. The events in Rushdie's text also parallel the magical nature of the narratives recounted in the Arabian Nights (consider the attempt to electrocute Saleem at the latrine (p.353), or his journey in the 'basket of invisibility' (p.383)).
The novel is also an expression of the author's own childhood, his affection for the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) in those times, and the tumultuous variety of the Indian subcontinent. Recognised for its remarkably flexible and innovative use of the English language, with a liberal mix of native Indian languages, this novel represents a departure from conventional Indian English writing. Compressing Indian cultural history, "Once upon a time," Saleem muses, "there were Radha and Krishna, and Rama and Sita, and Laila and Majnun; also (because we are not unaffected by the West) Romeo and Juliet, and Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn" (259), Midnight's Children chronological entwines characters from India's cultural history with characters from Western culture, and the devices that they signify -- Indian culture, religion and storytelling, Western drama and cinema -- are presented in Rushdie's text with postcolonial Indian history to examine both the effect of these indigenous and non-indigenous cultures on the Indian mind and in the light of Indian independence.
The foundations of religious authority are a central concern in the novel. As with Judaism and Protestant Christianity, Islam's authority resides in scripture and rests on the belief that its words come directly from God (Allah). Saleem Sinai, the novel's narrator, seems to want to appropriate some of the Islamic tradition's authority while at the same time questioning its legitimacy. Comparing himself to Muhammad, the vessel through whom the Quran is believed to have been dictated by Allah, Saleem claims to have heard "a headful of gabbling tongues" (p. 185), and, though he was initially perplexed and "struggled, alone, to understand what had happened," he later "saw the shawl of genius fluttering down, like an embroidered butterfly, the mantle of greatness settling upon [his] shoulders" (p. 185). Saleem's use and abuse of scriptural authority, by turns playful, blasphemous, and reverential, points to his (and Rushdie's) desire to unsettle some of the easy dichotomies that individual people as well as entire cultures use to make sense of themselves.
Literary significance & criticism
From its publication in 1981, Midnight’s Children has become a standard work on university syllabuses and has enjoyed an international readership that catapulted its author almost overnight to the very forefront of world authors. It was awarded the 1981 Booker Prize, the English Speaking Union Literary Award, and in 1993 it was awarded both the James Tait Prize and the Booker of Bookers Prize. (This was an award given out by the Booker committee to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the award.) In 2003 the novel was adapted to the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It has been compared in its scope and execution to works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses, Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Like them, Rushdie’s novel presents an encyclopaedic exploration of an entire society through the story of a single person. It is able to do this, in part, by merging with the novel form a number of non-Western texts such as the Sanskrit epics, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata and, most consciously (and not unproblematically) The 1,001 Nights.
The novel ran into some controversy for its open criticism of Indira Gandhi, India's then prime minister, and the Emergency that she imposed on the country.
It won both the 1981 Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the same year. The book was later awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' Prize in 1993 as the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. Midnight's Children is also the only Indian novel on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels since its founding in 1923.
Plot introduction
Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India, which took place at midnight on 15 August 1947. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent. Saleem Sinai's life then parallels the changing fortunes of the country after independence.
Plot summary
Characters in "Midnight's Children"
Saleem Sinai - The protagonist and narrator, Saleem Sinai is a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent.
Jamila Singer - Saleem's sister, named Jamila Sinai at birth, nicknamed the Brass Monkey during her childhood. She goes on to become the most famous singer in all of Pakistan.
Aadam Aziz - Aadam Aziz is a doctor and the father of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz. He has many children with Naseem Ghani, and struggles with questions of the existence of God throughout his life.
Tai - A boatman, Tai is a friend of Aadam Aziz. At times he demonstrates his ability to predict the future and, while most people consider him insane, he in fact makes several insightful remarks, the most important of which is his advice to Aadam Aziz to "follow his nose."
Naseem Ghani - Naseem Ghani is the daughter of a landlord and the mother of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz Aziz. She is a dramatic and strong-willed character who possesses a lot of power in her relationship with her husband Aadam Aziz.
Ghani the landowner - Naseem's father.
Padma Mangroli - Saleem's lover and, eventually, his fiancée, Padma plays the role of the listener in the storytelling structure of the novel.
Oskar and Ilse Lubin - German anarchist friends of Doctor Aziz.
Alia - The sister of Amina Sinai, or Mumtaz, Alia suffers from a lifelong love for Ahmed Sinai, whom her sister Mumtaz marries. Her resentment toward her sister manifests itself in the meals she cooks, and therefore affects those who eat what she prepares.
Mumtaz - Mumtaz, the sister of Alia, has her name changed to Amina when she gets married. Rushdie repeatedly describes Amina Sinai as "assiduous" in her wifely efforts. By sheer willpower, she forces herself to love her husband Ahmed Sinai. However, during her marriage to him she also has an affair with Nadir Khan, to whom she was married for two years in her youth, although they never consummated the marriage.
Hanif - Saleem's uncle Hanif is a screenwriter who enjoys some fame in his youth, but who grows disillusioned later in life with Bollywood and the superficiality of the film industry, and commits suicide.
Mustapha - Saleem's uncle, the brother of Mumtaz, marries Sonia.
Emerald - Saleem's aunt, the sister of Mumtaz, marries General Zulfikar.
Mian Abdullah - A pro-Indian Muslim political figure, who dies at the hands of assassins.
Nadir Khan - Mumtaz's first husband, Nadir Khan is the Hummingbird's personal secretary. After the Hummingbird's assassination, Nadir hides in the Aziz household for a few years, where he has a relationship with Mumtaz.
Rashid the rickshaw boy - A boy who informs Doctor Aziz that Nadir Khan needs a place to hide.
General Zulfikar - The husband of Emerald, who is involved with Pakistani political events.
Lifafa Das - A peep show street man who leads Amina to seer.
Shri Ramram Seth - A seer Amina visits while pregnant.
William Methwold - An Englishman from whom the Sinais buy their house in Bombay.
Ahmed Sinai - Saleem's father and Amina's husband.
Wee Willie Winkie - Shiva's father and Vanita's husband, Saleem's biological father.
Vanita - Saleem's biological mother, who dies during labor.
Mary Pereira - A midwife and servant, who switches Shiva and Saleem at birth.
Doctor Narlikar - A Gynecologist and businessman.
Evie Lilith Burns - Saleem's American childhood sweetheart.
Sonny Ibrahim - Saleem's neighbor and friend.
Joseph D'Costa - Mary Pereira's lover, who is politically radical.
Shiva - A boy who is born at the same moment as Saleem. They are switched at birth, and Shiva possesses an amazing ability to fight.
Parvati-the-witch - One of midnight's children, and a friend (and wife)of Saleem.
Homi Catrack - A man who has an affair with Lila Sabarmati and is subsequently murdered by Commander Sabarmati.
Lila Sabarmati - Commander Sabarmati's wife, who is shot, but not killed, by him for having an affair with Homi Catrack.
Commander Sabarmati - The husband of Lila Sabarmati who shoots his unfaithful wife and murders her lover.
Alice Pereira - Mary's sister, who works for Ahmed Sinai.
Uncle Puffs - Jamila Singer's agent.
Tai Bibi - A 512-year-old whore who Saleem visits.
Farooq, Shaheed, and Ayooba - Saleem's fellow soldiers in the Pakistani army.
Sonia - Mustapha's wife
Durga - A wet nurse for Aadam Sinai and a succubus to Picture Singh.
Aadam Sinai - Saleem's son. (Shiva's biological son)
Picture Singh - A snake charmer and a friend to Saleem.
Major themes
The technique of magical realism finds liberal expression throughout the novel and is crucial to constructing the parallel to the country's history. It has thus been compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
The narrative framework of Midnight's Children consists of a tale -- comprising his life story -- which Saleem Sinai recounts orally to his wife-to-be Padma. This self-referential narrative (within a single paragraph Saleem refers to himself in the first person: 'And I, wishing upon myself the curse of Nadir Khan. ...'; ' "I tell you," Saleem cried, "it is true. ..."') recalls indigenous Indian culture, particularly the similarly orally recounted Arabian Nights. The events in Rushdie's text also parallel the magical nature of the narratives recounted in the Arabian Nights (consider the attempt to electrocute Saleem at the latrine (p.353), or his journey in the 'basket of invisibility' (p.383)).
The novel is also an expression of the author's own childhood, his affection for the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) in those times, and the tumultuous variety of the Indian subcontinent. Recognised for its remarkably flexible and innovative use of the English language, with a liberal mix of native Indian languages, this novel represents a departure from conventional Indian English writing. Compressing Indian cultural history, "Once upon a time," Saleem muses, "there were Radha and Krishna, and Rama and Sita, and Laila and Majnun; also (because we are not unaffected by the West) Romeo and Juliet, and Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn" (259), Midnight's Children chronological entwines characters from India's cultural history with characters from Western culture, and the devices that they signify -- Indian culture, religion and storytelling, Western drama and cinema -- are presented in Rushdie's text with postcolonial Indian history to examine both the effect of these indigenous and non-indigenous cultures on the Indian mind and in the light of Indian independence.
The foundations of religious authority are a central concern in the novel. As with Judaism and Protestant Christianity, Islam's authority resides in scripture and rests on the belief that its words come directly from God (Allah). Saleem Sinai, the novel's narrator, seems to want to appropriate some of the Islamic tradition's authority while at the same time questioning its legitimacy. Comparing himself to Muhammad, the vessel through whom the Quran is believed to have been dictated by Allah, Saleem claims to have heard "a headful of gabbling tongues" (p. 185), and, though he was initially perplexed and "struggled, alone, to understand what had happened," he later "saw the shawl of genius fluttering down, like an embroidered butterfly, the mantle of greatness settling upon [his] shoulders" (p. 185). Saleem's use and abuse of scriptural authority, by turns playful, blasphemous, and reverential, points to his (and Rushdie's) desire to unsettle some of the easy dichotomies that individual people as well as entire cultures use to make sense of themselves.
Literary significance & criticism
From its publication in 1981, Midnight’s Children has become a standard work on university syllabuses and has enjoyed an international readership that catapulted its author almost overnight to the very forefront of world authors. It was awarded the 1981 Booker Prize, the English Speaking Union Literary Award, and in 1993 it was awarded both the James Tait Prize and the Booker of Bookers Prize. (This was an award given out by the Booker committee to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the award.) In 2003 the novel was adapted to the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It has been compared in its scope and execution to works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses, Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Like them, Rushdie’s novel presents an encyclopaedic exploration of an entire society through the story of a single person. It is able to do this, in part, by merging with the novel form a number of non-Western texts such as the Sanskrit epics, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata and, most consciously (and not unproblematically) The 1,001 Nights.
The novel ran into some controversy for its open criticism of Indira Gandhi, India's then prime minister, and the Emergency that she imposed on the country.
Rites of Passage
To the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989).
Rites of Passage
This was the first book of the trilogy, and went on to win the 1980 Man Booker Prize, beating Anthony Burgess' Earthly Powers. It focuses upon the account of a trip to Australia, and takes the form of a journal written by Edmund Talbot, a young, aristocratic passenger aboard the British warship HMS Pandora. His influential godfather, having secured him employment with the Governor General in Australia, presented him with the journal in which to record the significant events of the journey.
Talbot begins his commentary by detailing the various passengers and crew members, who encompass a motley yet representative collection of early 19th century English society. The journal quickly becomes concerned with the account of the downfall of a passenger, the Reverend Colley. Talbot has a somewhat ambiguous role in this: whilst he quickly assumes a mediator's role between the Reverend and Captain Anderson, the initial problem was caused by Talbot's presumption of preference and status within the passengers and, inappropriately, the crew. Class division, or the assumption of a higher status than is warranted, is a running theme of the book, focusing upon the proper conduct of a gentleman, but also his often stormy friendship with one of the officers, Lieutenant Summers, who often feels slighted by Talbot's ill-thought out comments and advice.
Like many of Golding’s books, it also looks at man’s reversion to savagery in the wake of isolation. Talbot is ambiguous about presenting the account, which he considers may not show him in the best light, to his godfather, though he does not consider that he has a choice and eventually has the journal sealed so he cannot tamper with it.
Close Quarters
Close Quarters was published seven years after the original book, though in the book the writing continues not long after the first journal was completed. This book begins with Edmund Talbot starting a new journal, but with a different tone as this was not to be presented to his godfather. The structure of the book differed in that it had a more traditional structure, with chapter breaks at dramatic moments, rather than the journal being presented as a day by day account as the first volume was.
The book focuses upon the romantic feelings of a clearly unwell Talbot for a young woman whom he meets on a different ship they come across, HMS Alcyone, and fears about the seaworthiness of the Pandora to complete her journey.
Fire Down Below
This was the final book of the trilogy, written in 1989.
Adaptation
In 2005 the books were adapted as a well-reviewed BBC2 drama serial, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Rites of Passage
This was the first book of the trilogy, and went on to win the 1980 Man Booker Prize, beating Anthony Burgess' Earthly Powers. It focuses upon the account of a trip to Australia, and takes the form of a journal written by Edmund Talbot, a young, aristocratic passenger aboard the British warship HMS Pandora. His influential godfather, having secured him employment with the Governor General in Australia, presented him with the journal in which to record the significant events of the journey.
Talbot begins his commentary by detailing the various passengers and crew members, who encompass a motley yet representative collection of early 19th century English society. The journal quickly becomes concerned with the account of the downfall of a passenger, the Reverend Colley. Talbot has a somewhat ambiguous role in this: whilst he quickly assumes a mediator's role between the Reverend and Captain Anderson, the initial problem was caused by Talbot's presumption of preference and status within the passengers and, inappropriately, the crew. Class division, or the assumption of a higher status than is warranted, is a running theme of the book, focusing upon the proper conduct of a gentleman, but also his often stormy friendship with one of the officers, Lieutenant Summers, who often feels slighted by Talbot's ill-thought out comments and advice.
Like many of Golding’s books, it also looks at man’s reversion to savagery in the wake of isolation. Talbot is ambiguous about presenting the account, which he considers may not show him in the best light, to his godfather, though he does not consider that he has a choice and eventually has the journal sealed so he cannot tamper with it.
Close Quarters
Close Quarters was published seven years after the original book, though in the book the writing continues not long after the first journal was completed. This book begins with Edmund Talbot starting a new journal, but with a different tone as this was not to be presented to his godfather. The structure of the book differed in that it had a more traditional structure, with chapter breaks at dramatic moments, rather than the journal being presented as a day by day account as the first volume was.
The book focuses upon the romantic feelings of a clearly unwell Talbot for a young woman whom he meets on a different ship they come across, HMS Alcyone, and fears about the seaworthiness of the Pandora to complete her journey.
Fire Down Below
This was the final book of the trilogy, written in 1989.
Adaptation
In 2005 the books were adapted as a well-reviewed BBC2 drama serial, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Offshore
Offshore (1979) is a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. It won the Booker Prize for that year. It recalls her time spent on boats in Battersea by the Thames. The novel centralizes around the idea of liminality, expanding upon it to include the notion: 'liminal people,' people who do not belong to the land or the sea, but somewhere in-between. The epigraph, "che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia, e che s'incontran con si aspre lingue" comes from the Canto XI of Dante's Inferno.
List of Characters and Their Boats (in order)
Lord Jim
Richard Blake, husband (39 yrs old).
Laura Blake, wife (aka. Lollie).
Maurice
Maurice.
Harry (Maurice's acquaintance, though he doesn't love on-board).
Grace
Nenna James, mother.
Martha James, teenage daughter.
Tilda (Matilda) James, daughter (6 yrs old).
Edward (estranged father and husband; never lives on-board).
Stripey (the cat).
Dreadnought
Willis (65yrs old painter, widower).
Rochester
Woodie, husband.
Janet, wife (actually lives ashore).
List of Characters and Their Boats (in order)
Lord Jim
Richard Blake, husband (39 yrs old).
Laura Blake, wife (aka. Lollie).
Maurice
Maurice.
Harry (Maurice's acquaintance, though he doesn't love on-board).
Grace
Nenna James, mother.
Martha James, teenage daughter.
Tilda (Matilda) James, daughter (6 yrs old).
Edward (estranged father and husband; never lives on-board).
Stripey (the cat).
Dreadnought
Willis (65yrs old painter, widower).
Rochester
Woodie, husband.
Janet, wife (actually lives ashore).
9/29/2007
The Sea the Sea
The Sea, the Sea is a novel by Iris Murdoch. It won the Booker Prize in 1978.
Plot summary
The Sea, the Sea is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs. Played out against a vividly rendered landscape and filled with allusions to myth and magic, Murdoch exposes the jumble of motivations that drive her characters - the human vanity, jealousy, and lack of compassion behind the disguises they present to the world.
Charles Arrowby, its central figure, decides to withdraw from the world and dwell in seclusion in a house by the sea. Whilst there, by an extraordinary coincidence he encounters his first love, Mary Hartley Fitch, whom he has not seen since his love affair with her as an adolescent. Although she is almost unrecognisable in old age, and totally outside his theatrical world, he becomes obsessed by her, idealizing his former relationship with her and attempting to persuade her to elope with him.
His inability to recognise the egotism and selfishness of his own romantic ideals is at the heart of the novel. After the farcical and abortive kidnapping of Mrs. Fitch by Arrowby, he is left to mull over her rejection in an enjoyably self-obssessional and self-aggrandising manner over the space of several chapters.
"How much, I see as I look back, I read into it all, reading my own dream text and not looking at the reality... Yes of course I was in love with my own youth... Who is one's first love?"
Plot summary
The Sea, the Sea is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs. Played out against a vividly rendered landscape and filled with allusions to myth and magic, Murdoch exposes the jumble of motivations that drive her characters - the human vanity, jealousy, and lack of compassion behind the disguises they present to the world.
Charles Arrowby, its central figure, decides to withdraw from the world and dwell in seclusion in a house by the sea. Whilst there, by an extraordinary coincidence he encounters his first love, Mary Hartley Fitch, whom he has not seen since his love affair with her as an adolescent. Although she is almost unrecognisable in old age, and totally outside his theatrical world, he becomes obsessed by her, idealizing his former relationship with her and attempting to persuade her to elope with him.
His inability to recognise the egotism and selfishness of his own romantic ideals is at the heart of the novel. After the farcical and abortive kidnapping of Mrs. Fitch by Arrowby, he is left to mull over her rejection in an enjoyably self-obssessional and self-aggrandising manner over the space of several chapters.
"How much, I see as I look back, I read into it all, reading my own dream text and not looking at the reality... Yes of course I was in love with my own youth... Who is one's first love?"
Staying On
Staying On is a novel by Paul Scott, which was published in 1977 and won the Booker Prize.
Plot summary
Staying On focuses on Tusker and Lucy Smalley, who are briefly mentioned in the last book of the Raj Quartet, A Division of the Spoils, and are the last British couple living in the small hill town of Pankot after Indian independence. Tusker had risen to the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army, but on his retirement had entered the world of commerce as a ‘box wallah’, and the couple had moved elsewhere in India. However, they had returned to Pankot to take up residence in the Lodge, an annex to Smith’s Hotel. This, formerly the town’s principal hotel, was now symbolically overshadowed by the brash new Shiraz Hotel, erected by a consortium of Indian businessmen from the nearby city of Ranpur.
We learn about life as an expat in Pankot principally by listening to Lucy’s ponderings, for it is she who is the loquacious one, in contrast to Tusker’s pathological reticence. He talks in clipped verbless telegraphese, often limiting his utterances to a single "Ha!". He has been purposeless since being obliged to retire, and it is left to Lucy to make sense of the world herself. It is a sad story of frustration that she recounts to herself. She remembers how the young Captain Smalley came back to London on leave in 1930, visited his bank, where she, a vicar’s daughter, worked, and tentatively asked her out. She was swept off her feet by the thought of marrying an army officer and dreamt of a glamorous wedding with his fellow officers making an arch with their swords, but life turned out very differently. His job was dull administration, and his early attentiveness in bed rapidly waned. He prohibited her from fulfilling herself by taking part in amateur dramatics. Not only this, but she ranked fairly low in the social pecking order among the white women in Pankot and suffered numerous indignities. A symbol of this retrospection is that their preferred conveyance is the tonga, a horse-drawn carriage in which they choose to sit facing backwards, "looking back at what we’re leaving behind".
It falls to Lucy to navigate a path between her husband’s obstinacy and obtuseness and the increasingly pressing demands of India’s slow transition to modernity. The question of who pays the gardener, for example, requires the skilful management of human relationships. She also tries to maintain some continuity in her life, through correspondence with her old acquaintances (characters in the Raj Quartet), such as Sarah Layton, who have moved back to England.
It is clear she blames Tusker for insisting on ‘staying on’—at one point they could have retired comfortably to England, but he has been reckless ("nothing goes quicker than hundred rupee notes"), and now she has no idea if they could afford it. She entreats him to tell her how she would stand financially if he were to die. At long last, he writes her a letter, setting out their finances and also remarking that she had been "a good woman" to him. But he also tells her not to ask him about it, as he is incapable of discussing it face to face: "If you do I’ll only say something that will hurt you". Nevertheless, she treasures this, the only love letter she has ever received.
Meanwhile we see the new India that is replacing the British Raj, symbolised by Mrs Lila Bhoolabhoy, the temperamental and overweight owner of Smith’s Hotel, and her much put upon husband and hotel manager, who is Tusker’s drinking companion. The richly humorous context includes the engagement of servants, the railway service, poached eggs, hairdressing and the church organ. The intimate relationship between the Smalleys' servant Ibrahim and Mrs Bhoolabhoy's maid Minnie adds an "Upstairs, Downstairs" aspect.
Mrs Bhoolabhoy’s greed induces her to trade her ownership of the now shabby Smith’s hotel for a share in the competing consortium. She instructs Mr Bhoolabhoy to issue the Smalleys with a notice to quit the Lodge.
On receipt of this letter, Tusker flies into an impotent rage and drops dead of a heart attack. Lucy is downcast and puts on a brave face as she prepares for the funeral and a solitary life. But, at last, she is free to return to England. She will be able to scrape by on her £1,500 a year. She is a survivor, because she can adapt, as is shown by the fact that, at the last moment, she breaks a previously upheld taboo and invites her hairdresser, Susy, who is of mixed race, to dinner.
Style
The novel is notable for its clear prose and evenness of style, the perfect tone of its dialogue, and the sensitivity with which it elucidates the unspoken underside of a marital relationship which has withered on the vine. This tragedy is leavened by the ironies that are thrown up by the clash of British with Indian expectations.
Adaptations
In 1980, it was turned into a television serial by Granada TV, starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. This paved the way for the television treatment of The Jewel in the Crown, based on Scott's The Raj Quartet, to which it is in fact a coda.
Plot summary
Staying On focuses on Tusker and Lucy Smalley, who are briefly mentioned in the last book of the Raj Quartet, A Division of the Spoils, and are the last British couple living in the small hill town of Pankot after Indian independence. Tusker had risen to the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army, but on his retirement had entered the world of commerce as a ‘box wallah’, and the couple had moved elsewhere in India. However, they had returned to Pankot to take up residence in the Lodge, an annex to Smith’s Hotel. This, formerly the town’s principal hotel, was now symbolically overshadowed by the brash new Shiraz Hotel, erected by a consortium of Indian businessmen from the nearby city of Ranpur.
We learn about life as an expat in Pankot principally by listening to Lucy’s ponderings, for it is she who is the loquacious one, in contrast to Tusker’s pathological reticence. He talks in clipped verbless telegraphese, often limiting his utterances to a single "Ha!". He has been purposeless since being obliged to retire, and it is left to Lucy to make sense of the world herself. It is a sad story of frustration that she recounts to herself. She remembers how the young Captain Smalley came back to London on leave in 1930, visited his bank, where she, a vicar’s daughter, worked, and tentatively asked her out. She was swept off her feet by the thought of marrying an army officer and dreamt of a glamorous wedding with his fellow officers making an arch with their swords, but life turned out very differently. His job was dull administration, and his early attentiveness in bed rapidly waned. He prohibited her from fulfilling herself by taking part in amateur dramatics. Not only this, but she ranked fairly low in the social pecking order among the white women in Pankot and suffered numerous indignities. A symbol of this retrospection is that their preferred conveyance is the tonga, a horse-drawn carriage in which they choose to sit facing backwards, "looking back at what we’re leaving behind".
It falls to Lucy to navigate a path between her husband’s obstinacy and obtuseness and the increasingly pressing demands of India’s slow transition to modernity. The question of who pays the gardener, for example, requires the skilful management of human relationships. She also tries to maintain some continuity in her life, through correspondence with her old acquaintances (characters in the Raj Quartet), such as Sarah Layton, who have moved back to England.
It is clear she blames Tusker for insisting on ‘staying on’—at one point they could have retired comfortably to England, but he has been reckless ("nothing goes quicker than hundred rupee notes"), and now she has no idea if they could afford it. She entreats him to tell her how she would stand financially if he were to die. At long last, he writes her a letter, setting out their finances and also remarking that she had been "a good woman" to him. But he also tells her not to ask him about it, as he is incapable of discussing it face to face: "If you do I’ll only say something that will hurt you". Nevertheless, she treasures this, the only love letter she has ever received.
Meanwhile we see the new India that is replacing the British Raj, symbolised by Mrs Lila Bhoolabhoy, the temperamental and overweight owner of Smith’s Hotel, and her much put upon husband and hotel manager, who is Tusker’s drinking companion. The richly humorous context includes the engagement of servants, the railway service, poached eggs, hairdressing and the church organ. The intimate relationship between the Smalleys' servant Ibrahim and Mrs Bhoolabhoy's maid Minnie adds an "Upstairs, Downstairs" aspect.
Mrs Bhoolabhoy’s greed induces her to trade her ownership of the now shabby Smith’s hotel for a share in the competing consortium. She instructs Mr Bhoolabhoy to issue the Smalleys with a notice to quit the Lodge.
On receipt of this letter, Tusker flies into an impotent rage and drops dead of a heart attack. Lucy is downcast and puts on a brave face as she prepares for the funeral and a solitary life. But, at last, she is free to return to England. She will be able to scrape by on her £1,500 a year. She is a survivor, because she can adapt, as is shown by the fact that, at the last moment, she breaks a previously upheld taboo and invites her hairdresser, Susy, who is of mixed race, to dinner.
Style
The novel is notable for its clear prose and evenness of style, the perfect tone of its dialogue, and the sensitivity with which it elucidates the unspoken underside of a marital relationship which has withered on the vine. This tragedy is leavened by the ironies that are thrown up by the clash of British with Indian expectations.
Adaptations
In 1980, it was turned into a television serial by Granada TV, starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. This paved the way for the television treatment of The Jewel in the Crown, based on Scott's The Raj Quartet, to which it is in fact a coda.
Heat and Dust
Heat and Dust (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala which won the Booker Prize in 1975.
Plot summary
The events of the story take place in India, during the periods of the British Raj in the 1920s and the present day of the novel (the 1970s). A young English woman, Anne, searches for the truth about Olivia (1920s), the first wife of her grandfather.
Anne discovers that Olivia was a woman smothered by the social restrictions placed upon her by British society. She falls in love with a Nawab and becomes pregnant with his child. Her decision to abort the baby results in a scandal. In discovering the truth about these events, Anne also comes to understand herself better and develops an interest in India.
Awards
1975: Heat and Dust Wins Booker Prize
Film
Heat and Dust (film) (1983) is a Merchant Ivory Productions award winning film, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based upon her novel. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant.
Plot summary
The events of the story take place in India, during the periods of the British Raj in the 1920s and the present day of the novel (the 1970s). A young English woman, Anne, searches for the truth about Olivia (1920s), the first wife of her grandfather.
Anne discovers that Olivia was a woman smothered by the social restrictions placed upon her by British society. She falls in love with a Nawab and becomes pregnant with his child. Her decision to abort the baby results in a scandal. In discovering the truth about these events, Anne also comes to understand herself better and develops an interest in India.
Awards
1975: Heat and Dust Wins Booker Prize
Film
Heat and Dust (film) (1983) is a Merchant Ivory Productions award winning film, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based upon her novel. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant.
The Conservationist
The Conservationist is a 1974 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.
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