Full title · Lady Chatterley's Lover

author · D.H. Lawrence

type of work · Novel

genre · The greatness of Lady Chatterley's Lover lies in a paradox: it is simultaneously progressive and reactionary, modern and Victorian.

language · English

time and place written · written towards the end of the 1920s, a decade which had seen extensive literary experimentation while travelling

date of first publication · first published in the spring of 1928--ripped by most reviewers and censored in England and America

narrator · narrator usually speaks with the familiar third-person omniscience of the Victorian novel

climax · Connie goes away to Venice for a vacation. While she is gone, Mellors' old wife returns, causing a scandal. Connie returns to find that Mellors has been fired as a result of the negative rumors spread about him by his resentful wife, against whom he has initiated divorce proceedings. Connie admits to Clifford that she is pregnant with Mellors' baby, but Clifford refuses to give her a divorce.

protagonists · Mellors and Connie

settings (time) · the first half of the 20th century

settings (place) · the Chatterley mansion, Wragby

point of view ·

RISING ACTION - Connie longs for real human contact, and falls into despair, as all men seem scared of true feelings and true passion. There is a growing distance between Connie and Clifford, who has retreated into the meaningless pursuit of success in his writing and in his obsession with coal-mining, and towards whom Connie feels a deep physical aversion.

falling action · Connie admits to Clifford that she is pregnant with Mellors' baby, but Clifford refuses to give her a divorce. The novel ends with Mellors working on a farm, waiting for his divorce, and Connie living with her sister, also waiting: the hope exists that, in the end, they will be together.

tense · Past

tone · nostalgic, pessimistic

themes · the interrelation of the mind and the body

(cohesion between the mind and the body), the degradation of modern civilization

motifs · industrialism and modern technology, intellectual life

symbols ·

full title · Death of a Hero

author · Richard Aldington

type of work · Novel

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full title · 1984

author · George Orwell

type of work · Novel

genre · Negative utopian, or dystopian, fiction

time and place written · England, 1949

date of first publication · 1949

publisher · Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

narrator · Third-person, limited

climax · Winston’s torture with the cage of rats in Room 101

protagonist · Winston Smith

antagonist · The Party; Big Brother

setting (time) · 1984

setting (place) · London, England (known as “Airstrip One” in the novel’s alternate reality)

point of view · Winston Smith’s

falling action · Winston’s time in the café following his release from prison, including the memory of his meeting with Julia at the end of Book Three.

tense · Past

tone · Dark, frustrated, pessimistic

themes · The psychological, technological, physical, and social dangers of totalitarianism and political authority; the importance of language in shaping human thought

motifs · Urban decay (London is falling apart under the Party’s leadership); the idea of doublethink (the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at the same time and believe them both to be true)

symbols · Winston’s time in the café following his release from prison, including the memory of his meeting with Julia at the end of Book Three.

full title · A Clockwork Orange

author · John Anthony Burgess Wilson (Anthony Burgess)

type of work · Novella

genre · Dystopia; philosophical novel; social satire; black comedy

language · English

time and place written · 1958–1961, England

date of first publication · 1962

publisher · W.W. Norton & Company

narrator · Alex narrates A Clockwork Orange immediately after the events of the novel.

point of view · The narrator speaks in the first person, subjectively describing only what he sees, hears, thinks, and experiences.

tone · Irreverent; comical; hateful; playful; juvenile

tense · Past, though in the last few paragraphs the narrator switches to present tense

setting (time) · The not-so-distant future

setting (place) · A large town or small city in England, as well as an English countryside village

protagonist · Alex

major conflict · Alex asserts himself against the State, which seeks to suppress his freedom by psychologically removing his power to make free choices.

rising action · Alex commits several violent crimes that disrupt the order of the State.

climax · Alex is apprehended by the police and sent to jail, where he eventually undergoes behavioral conditioning that kills his capacity for violence.

falling action · Alex becomes a being incapable of making moral decisions, and he is caught up in a political struggle between the current government and a cabal of revolutionaries.

themes · The inviolability of free will; the necessity of commitment; the inherent evil of government; “duality as the ultimate reality”

motifs · Nadsat; classical music; Christ

symbols · Milk; synthemesc, vellocet and drencrom (hallucinogenic drugs); night/darkness; day/lightness

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1096