English Literature books summary

sounds, and he is still cautious. But the narrator tells himself that if he

is not fit to face the devil, he could not have lived twenty years alone on

the island. Time continues passing. Robinson spends time with his parrot

and his various animals. One day, he is stunned to see a fire on his side

of the island--the savages are back. He sees they have two canoes from a

lookout point, but he does not dare approach them. When the tide returns

they leave. Crusoe is horrified at the human remains on the shore. Once

again he wants to destroy the savages when they return. When the twenty-

fourth anniversary passes, Robinson spies the wreck of a Spanish ship

drifting towards the island. His heart is lightened by the thought that

there might be a survivor. He hastens to his boat, gathers provisions, and

rows out to the wreck. Aside from a yelping dog, he finds no one living.

Crusoe takes the dog, along with some liquor, clothing and money, back to

the island with him.

Part 7 Summary:

The narrator resumes his quiet steady life. He always thinks upon the

goodness of Providence. But he is haunted by dreams of savages. In this

time the narrator has thought that upon saving the life of a captive or a

savage himself, he might be able to make him his companion and obtain

escape from the island. Only now does he realize how lonely he has been.

Crusoe waits patiently, and after a year and a half he is rewarded by the

appearance of five canoes on shore. Against twenty or thirty men, he

wonders how he will fight. He spies two "miserable wretches" being pulled

from the boat. As one is beaten and cut open for the feast, the other

manages to run away, towards Robinson. He fetches his two guns and goes to

save "the creature's" life. He manages to shoot the two men pursuing the

prisoner. The prisoner then begins to bow to the narrator and rest his head

on his foot. He is amazed that his enemies are dead. Apparently he has

never seen a gun. Together they bury the bodies. Robinson gives the man

bread, raisins and water, who then falls asleep. He is a good-looking

youth, about twenty-six years old, but he does not speak English. Robinson

manages to tell the man that his name is Friday, and that he should call

the narrator Master. When they go out and reach the graves of the two men,

Friday makes signs that they should eat the bodies. Crusoe becomes very

angry and leads away the docile Friday. He still hungers for flesh, but the

narrator makes him understand that he will be killed if he eats other men.

Friday is dressed in his master's image. He becomes a most devoted

manservant. The relationship is very loving. Robinson seeks to make Friday

civilized with everything from eating habits to religious teachings. He

teaches him how to use guns and roast goats. Crusoe is having a wonderful

time.

A year goes by in this pleasant way. Friday learns broken English. He

manages to tell Robinson that they are near the Caribbean, and that they

would need a big boat to get back to his homeland. The narrator begins to

teach about the Christian God. Friday does not understand why the Devil

cannot be beaten if God is stronger. Robinson makes him understand that all

must be given the chance to repent and be pardoned. Explaining this makes

Crusoe even more full of faith because he clears up his own ideas. Friday

tells him that there are white men living peaceably on his native land.

When the weather is clear, Friday rejoices at seeing his homeland in the

distance. Robinson worries that he might return there and resume his old

habits. Thus he is jealous. But Friday assures him that he only wants to

return so that he can teach the others. He says that Crusoe would have to

come with him, though, or he would not be able to leave. He cannot even

bear for Crusoe to send him to the continent first--they have lived in

harmony for three years. Together they manage to build a big boat. Robinson

sets the adventure for the post-rain months of November and December.

Part 8 Summary:

Before Friday and Robinson can make their journey, three canoes arrive

on the island. Friday panics. Robinson provides him with some rum, and they

gather their weapons. Crusoe is not worried; they are "naked, unarmed

wretches" who are subservient to him. The savages have prisoners. As Friday

and Robinson approach, they are eating the flesh of one. A white-bearded

man of European descent is a prisoner. The narrator is horrified and

enraged, for he thought those men lived peaceably with Friday's people.

Against nineteen men Friday and Crusoe wage battle, Friday always copying

the moves of his master. In the chaos, the prisoners are freed. One of them

is a Spaniard. The narrator enlists his help in shooting his captors.

Together the three of them manage to kill most of the savages. The

remaining ones run to two of the canoes and hastily row away, never again

to return to the island. In the third canoe another man is founded, bound

and gagged. Friday is ecstatic--it is his father. The reunion is joyous,

and the narrator is very touched. They give the prisoners bread and water.

Friday and Robinson make them some beds. Crusoe is very happy that "his

island is now peopled," and he is "rich in its subjects." He considers

himself the rightful lord. Talking with the Spaniard, Robinson learns that

more of his men are living with the savages, but in peace. The narrator

would like to join these Europeans, but he fears being a prisoner in New

Spain and being sent to the Inquisition. The Spaniard assures him this

would not happen. He is so impressed with Robinson's island that he wants

to bring the rest of his men there to live. Everyone works to increase the

livestock and crops in preparation. Finally the Spaniard and Friday's

father are sent back in the canoe to gather the men.

As Friday and Robinson await their return, they spy another ship close

to shore. It appears to be an English boat. Some men row to the island.

Three of them are prisoners. The seamen are running about, trying to

explore this strange place. Robinson dearly wishes that the Spaniard and

Friday's father were here to help fight. While the seamen sleep, Crusoe and

Friday approach the prisoners, who see them as God-sent. They learn from

one that he is the captain of the ship, and his crew has mutinied. They

want to leave him with the first mate and a passenger to perish. Robinson

says he will try to save them on two conditions: that they pretend no

authority on the island, and that if the battle is won, that they take

Friday and himself to England passage-free. It is agreed. They are able to

surprise everyone on land, killing some and granting mercy to those who beg

for their lives. Crusoe tells the captain of his life on the island. The

captain is visibly moved. Next they want to recover the ship. On the water

they hear shots. With the aid of a binocular-type instrument, they see

another small boat of men approaching. The captain says only a few can be

trusted; the chief organizer of the mutiny is in the boat. Robinson

marshals his "troops," consisting of Friday and the prisoners. They wait to

start the battle.

Part 9 Summary:

The boat of men lands on shore. They examine the first, broken boat.

Shots go off to try and find the other crew members. Robinson and his army

wait for a while. Just as the men are going to leave, the narrator bids

Friday and the first mate to holler from an area of rising ground within

his sight. The men run back eagerly. Two stay in the boat. Crusoe and the

others surprise them and quickly get them to join their side. The other men

are looking for the calls. Friday and the mate lead them astray until dark.

They return to the boat and are stunned when they find the other two men

gone. In the midst of their surprise Robinson and the army attack. Two men

are killed outright. The captain tells the rest to surrender by order of

the governor, Crusoe. Arms are laid down and the men are rounded up as

prisoners and divided up. Some are taken to the goat pasture, some to the

cave, where the first prisoners lay. Except for the worst of the crew, they

all pledge their undying devotion to the captain. In the guise of the

governor's assistant, Crusoe tells them that if they mutiny or go back on

their word, they will be killed. The captain goes out with his men in a

boat and is able to reclaim his large ship. He kills the head of the

mutiny, and they hang his body from a tree on the island. The captain

immediately hands over the ship to Crusoe. Crusoe embraces the captain as

his deliverer. He dresses in new clothing from the ship and poses as the

Governor. He addresses the untrustworthy prisoners, and tells them they can

either stay on the island or return to England and be hanged. They choose

to stay on the isle. Robinson takes time to show them where all his

amenities are. He and Friday leave on the ship with the rest of their

little army.

Robinson arrives in England thirty-five years after he left it. He

finds the old Portuguese captain in Lisbon and is able to get in contact

with his old plantation partners. He finds he is very wealthy and

successful. He pays the Portuguese man and the widow who was his trustee

very well for all the kindness they have shown him. He sends his two

sisters in the English countryside some money. Crusoe thinks of going to

Brazil, but decides he could not bear the rule under the religion of

Catholicism. Thus he resolves to sell the plantation and settle in England.

To get to England from Portugal, Robinson decides not to sail but to go by

land. The journey is treacherous. They are almost attacked by wolves. The

guide becomes ill. At one point Friday must fight a bear. Happily enough,

they are successful and arrive unscathed in Dover. Robinson eventually

marries and has three children. When his wife dies, he takes a voyage with

his nephew to the East Indies. There he sees that his island is faring

well, the Spaniards having arrived at the behest of Friday's father and the

first Spaniard who landed on the isle. There are women and young children

as well as men. Crusoe looks in on the inhabitants of the island from time

to time. He is always on a voyage.

The Picture of Dorian Grey by O.Wilde

PREFACE

The artist creates beautiful things. Art aims to reveal art and

conceal the artist. The critic translates impressions from the art into

another medium. Criticism is a form of autobiography. People who look at

something beautiful and find an ugly meaning are "corrupt without being

charming." Cultivated people look at beautiful things and find beautiful

meanings. The elect are those who see only beauty in beautiful things.

Books can’t be moral or immoral; they are only well or badly written.

People of the nineteenth century who dislike realism are like Caliban

who is enraged at seeing his own face in the mirror. People of the

nineteenth century who dislike romanticism are like Caliban enraged at not

seeing himself in the mirror.

The subject matter of art is the moral life of people, but moral art

is art that is well formed. Artists don’t try to prove anything. Artists

don’t have ethical sympathies, which in an artist "is an unpardonable

mannerism of style." The subject matter of art can include things that are

morbid, because "the artist can express everything." The artist’s

instruments are thought and language.

Vice and virtue are the materials of art. In terms of form, music is

the epitome of all the arts. In terms of feeling, acting is the epitome of

the arts.

Art is both surface and symbol. People who try to go beneath the

surface and those who try to read the symbols "do so at their own peril."

Art imitates not life, but the spectator. When there is a diversity of

opinion about a work of art, the art is good. "When critics disagree the

artist is in accord with him[/her]self."

The value of art is not in its usefulness. Art is useless.

CHAPTER 1

In a richly decorated studio an artist, Basil Hallward talks with a

guest, Lord Henry Wotton about a new portrait he has standing out. Lord

Henry exclaims that it is the best of Hallward’s work and that he should

show it at Grosvenor. Hallward remarks that he doesn’t plan to show it at

all. Lord Henry can’t imagine why an artist wouldn’t want to show his work.

Hallward explains that he has put too much of himself in it to show it to

the public. Lord Henry can’t understand this since Hallward isn’t a

beautiful man while the subject of the portrait is extraordinarily

beautiful. As he is explaining himself, he mentions the subject’s name--

Dorian Gray. He regrets having slipped, saying that when he likes people,

he never tells their names because it feels to him as if he’s giving them

away to strangers.

Lord Henry compares this idea to his marriage, saying that "the one

charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary

for both parties." He adds that he and his wife never know where the other

is and that she’s always a better liar than he is, but that she just laughs

at him when he slips. Basil Hallward is impatient with Lord Henry for this

revelation, accusing Lord Henry of posing. He adds that Lord Henry never

says anything moral and never does anything immoral. Lord Henry tells him

that being natural is the worst of the poses.

Hallward returns to the idea of the portrait. He explains that "every

portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the

sitter." The sitter only occasions the production of the art. The painter

is revealed, not the sitter. He won’t, therefore, show the secret of his

soul to the public.

He tells the story of how he met Dorian Gray. He went to a "crush" put

on by Lady Brandon. While he was walking around the room, he saw Dorian

Gray, "someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed

it to do so, it would absorb by whole nature, my whole soul, my very art

itself." He was afraid of such an influence, so he avoided meeting the man

he saw. He tried to leave and Lady Brandon caught him and took him around

the room introducing him to her guests. He had recently shown a piece that

created a sensation, so his cultural capital was quite high at the time.

After numerous introductions, he came upon Dorian Gray.

Lady Brandon says she didn’t know what Mr. Gray did, perhaps nothing,

perhaps he played the piano or the violin. The two men laughed at her and

became friends with each other at once.

He tells Lord Henry that soon he painted Dorian Gray’s portrait. Now,

Dorian Gray is all of Hallward’s art. He explains that in art, there are

two epochal events possible: one is the introduction of a new medium for

art, like the oil painting, the second is the appearance of a new

personality for art. Dorian Gray is the latter.

Even when he’s not painting Dorian Gray, he is influenced by him to

paint extraordinarily different creations. It is like a new school of art

emerging. Dorian Gray is his motive in art.

As he is explaining the art, he mentions that he has never told Dorian

Gray how important he is. He won’t show his Dorian Gray- inspired art

because he fears that the public would recognize his bared soul. Lord Henry

notes that bared souls are quite popular these days in fiction. Hallward

hates this trend, saying that the artist should create beautiful things,

and should put nothing of his own life into them. Dorian Gray is often

quite charming to Basil, but sometimes he seems to take delight in hurting

Basil. Basil feels at such moments that he has given his soul to someone

shallow and cruel enough to treat it as a flower to ornament his lapel.

Lord Henry predicts that Basil will tire of Dorian sooner than Dorian will

tire of him. Basil refuses to believe this. He says as long as he lives,

Dorian Gray will dominate his life.

Lord Henry suddenly remembers that he has heard Dorian Gray’s name.

His aunt, Lady Agatha, has mentioned him in relation to some philanthropic

work she does, saying he was going to help her in the East End. Suddenly,

Dorian Gray is announced. Basil Hallward asks his servant to have Mr. Gray

wait a moment. He tells Lord Henry not to exert any influence on Dorian

Gray because he depends completely on Dorian remaining uncorrupted. Lord

Henry scoffs at the idea as nonsense.

CHAPTER 2

When they walk from the studio into the house, they see Dorian Gray at

the piano. He tells Basil that he’s tired of sitting for his portrait. Then

he sees Lord Henry and is embarrassed. Basil tries to get Lord Henry to

leave, but Dorian asks him to stay and talk to him while he sits for the

portrait. He adds that Basil never talks or listens as he paints. Lord

Henry agrees to stay.

They discuss Dorian’s work in philanthropy. Lord Henry thinks he’s too

charming to do that kind of thing. Dorian wonders if Lord Henry will be a

bad influence on him as Basil thinks he will be.

Lord Henry thinks all influence is corrupting since the person

influenced no longer thinks with her or his own thoughts. He thinks the

"aim of life is self development." He doesn’t like philanthropy because it

makes people neglect themselves. They clothe poor people and let their own

souls starve. Only fear governs society, according to Lord Henry. Terror of

God is the secret of religion and terror of society is the basis of morals.

If people would live their lives fully, giving form to every feeling and

expression to every thought, the world would be enlivened by a fresh

impulse of joy. He urges Dorian not to run from his youthful fears.

Dorian becomes upset and asks him to stop talking so he can deal with

all that he has said. He stands still for ten minutes. He realizes he is

being influenced strongly. He suddenly understands things he has always

wondered about. Lord Henry watches him fascinated.

He remembers when he was sixteen he read a book and was immensely

influenced. He wonders if Dorian Gray is being influenced that way by his

random words. Hallward paints furiously. Dorian asks for a break. Basil

apologizes for making him stand so long. He is excited about the portrait

he’s painting, and praises Dorian for standing so perfectly still as to let

him get at the effect he had wanted. He says he hasn’t heard the

conversation, but he hopes Dorian won’t listen to anything Lord Henry tells

him.

Lord Henry and Dorian go out into the garden while Basil works on the

background of the portrait in the studio. Dorian buries his face in a

flower. Lord Henry tells him he is doing just as he should since the senses

are the only way to cure the soul. They begin to stroll and Dorian Gray

clearly looks upset. He’s afraid of Lord Henry’s influence. Lord Henry

urges him to come and sit in the shade to avoid getting a sunburn and

ruining his beauty. Dorian wonders why it’s important. Lord Henry tells him

it matters more than anything else since his youth is his greatest gift and

that it will leave him soon. As they sit down, he implores Dorian to enjoy

his youth while he can. He shouldn’t give his life to the "ignorant, the

common, and the vulgar." He thinks the age needs a new Hedonism (pursuit of

pleasure as the greatest goal in life). Dorian Gray could be its visible

symbol.

Dorian Gray listens intently. Suddenly, Basil comes out to get them.

He says he’s ready to resume the portrait. Inside, Lord Henry sits down and

watches Basil paint. After only a quarter of an hour, Basil says the

painting is complete. Lord Henry proclaims it his finest work and offers to

buy it. Basil says it’s Dorian’s painting.

When Dorian looks at it, he realizes he is beautiful as Lord Henry

has been telling him. He hadn’t taken it seriously before. Now he knows

what Lord Henry has meant by youth being so short-lived. He realizes the

painting will always be beautiful and he will not. He wishes it were

reversed. He accuses Basil of liking his art works better than his friends.

Basil is shocked at this change in Dorian. He tells him his friendship

means more to him than anything. Dorian is so upset that he says he’ll kill

himself the moment he realizes he’s growing old. Basil turns to Lord Henry

and says it’s his fault. Then he realizes he is arguing with his two best

friends and says he’ll destroy the painting to stop the argument. Dorian

pulls the knife away from him to stop him. He tells Basil he’s in love with

the portrait and thinks of it as part of himself.

The butler brings tea and the men sit down to drink it. Lord Henry

proposes they go to the theater that night. Basil refuses the invitation,

but Dorian agrees to go. When they get up to go, Basil asks Lord Henry to

remember what he asked him in the studio before they went in to see Dorian.

Lord Henry shrugs and says he doesn’t even trust himself, so Basil

shouldn’t try to trust him.

CHAPTER 3

It is 12:30 in the afternoon and Lord Henry Wotton is walking to his

uncle’s house. Lord Fermor had in his youth been secretary to his father,

an ambassador to Madrid. When his father didn’t get the ambassadorship of

Paris, he quit in a huff and Lord Fermor quit with him. From them on Lord

Fermor had spent his life devoted "to the serious study of the great

aristocratic art of doing absolutely nothing." He pays some attention to

the coal mines in the Midland counties, "excusing himself from the taint of

industry on the ground that the one advantage of having coal was that I

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