English Literature books summary

Moses the tame raven is the most difficult animal for the pigs to persuade

to join the revolution. Moses claims that he knows of the existence of a

magical place called Sugarcandy Mountain, and his tales are a constant

distraction to the other animals.

Revolution comes earlier than anyone expected, when Mr. Jones gets so

drunk that he is unable to go feed the animals. After a day and a half

without food, the hungry animals finally riot and break into the feeding

area themselves, prompting Mr. Jones and his field hands to come outside.

The animals attack them with a vengeance, and the men flee, leaving Manor

Farm to the animals. Mrs. Jones wakes up during the commotion, and when she

discovers what has happened, she runs off with a suitcase of clothes

herself. The animals rejoice, walking over the farm to examine their

property, curiously investigate the farmhouse interior, and celebrate with

extra rations of food. The next morning, Snowball repaints the sign reading

"Manor Farm" to say "Animal Farm," and he and Napoleon introduce the

animals to The Seven Commandments, which form the tenets of their

"Animalism":

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

No animal shall wear clothes.

No animal shall sleep in a bed.

No animal shall drink alcohol.

No animal shall kill another animal.

All animals are created equal.

The cows by this time need milking, so the pigs manage to milk them.

Several of the animals want some of the milk for themselves, but Napoleon

distracts them, saying that they have more important things to attend to

and that he will take care of it. Later that day, the animals notice that

the milk had disappeared.

Chapter Three: Summary

The Animalism regime begins very promisingly, with all the animals

working industriously to improve the farm, and enjoying the feeling of self-

governance and "animal pride" which their regime produces. Inspired by the

idea that they would enjoy the fruits of their own labors for the first

time, the animals overcome the challenges of farming without man and bring

in the largest harvest Animal Farm has ever produced. Boxer the horse

becomes a model of hard work and devotion to the cause, and adopts the

personal motto, "I will work harder". The pigs do not actually perform any

work, but instead supervise and coordinate the work for the rest of the

animals. Mollie the mare is the only animal who shirks work. Benjamin, the

old donkey, remains unchanged after the revolution, and cryptically says

that "Donkeys live a long time." The animals observe a flag-raising ritual

on Sundays, which is a day of rest for them. Snowball forms an array of

committees aimed at social improvements, education, training, and the like.

The education program achieves the greatest success, with all the animals

achieving some degree of literacy. After the discovery that the stupider

animals could not learn the Seven Commandments, Snowball reduces the tenets

down to the maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad," which even the sheep can

memorize, and bleat for hours on end. The dogs have a litter of nine

puppies, which Napoleon takes under the guise of educating them. He keeps

them secluded in the loft, and soon the other animals forget about them.

After the apple harvest, the pigs announce that they will reserve all the

apples and milk for themselves, to fuel the strenuous efforts required to

manage the farm. The other animals reluctantly acquiesce.

Chapter Four: Summary

News of the rebellion at Animal Farm spreads quickly to the rest of

the animals in England, and the words to "Beasts of England" can soon be

heard on farms everywhere. Emboldened by the Animal Farm revolution, other

previously subdued animals begin displaying subversive behavior in subtle

ways, such as tearing down fences and throwing riders. This development

alarms the local farmers, who have listened to Mr. Jones's tale of woe at

the Red Lion tavern where he now spends most of his time. Alarmed by the

developments at Animal Farm and the threat of revolution spreading, the

townsmen band together with Mr. Jones and attempt to reclaim his farm. The

animals successfully defend it, led by the strategy and bravery of

Snowball. A young farm hand is thrown to the ground by Boxer, and at first

it appears that he has been killed, but he gains consciousness a few

moments later and runs off. At the first gunshot, Mollie the mare runs into

the barn in terror and buries her head in the hay. Snowball and Boxer are

given medals for their courageous fighting.

Chapter Five: Summary

Unhappy with the new workload at Animal Farm, Mollie runs away to work

pulling a dogcart for a man who feeds her sugar lumps, and she is never

spoken of again. When winter comes, Snowball begins talking of a plan to

build a windmill to bring electricity to the farm. Snowball has spent much

of his spare time reading Mr. Jones's old books on farming techniques, and

he envisions an Animal Farm where increased productivity will result in

less work and more comfortable lifestyles for all the animals. Napoleon,

who by this times disagrees with Snowball about almost everything, is

bitterly opposed, and the animals become divided into two camps of

supporters. Napoleon and Snowball also disagree about the best course of

defense for the farm, with Snowball advocating the spread of the

revolutionary spirit to neighboring farms, while Napoleon feels the animals

should procure weapons and develop a military force. The animals are set to

vote, and after Snowball's impassioned speech, Napoleon whistles for nine

large dogs (the puppies that he has trained), and they attack Snowball and

drive him off the farm. Napoleon becomes the single leader of the animals,

abolishes their weekly debates and meetings, and announces that they will

go through with the windmill scheme after all. The animals are initially

dismayed by these developments, but Squealer eventually smoothes things

over.

Chapter Six: Summary

The animals begin working like slaves to complete the harvest and

build the windmill. Napoleon announces that the animals will now perform

"voluntary" work on Sundays. Though the work is officially called

voluntary, any animal who does not participate will have their food rations

cut in half. To finance the completion of the windmill, Napoleon announces

that Animal Farm will begin trading with the men who run nearby farms. The

animals think they remember Old Major speaking against evil human habits

such as trade. Squealer convinces the animals that they are only imagining

it. The sight of Napoleon on four legs conducting business with the farm's

trade agent Mr. Whymper, who stands upright, makes the animals so proud

that they ignore their misgivings. The pigs then move into the farmhouse,

and Squealer again convinces that animals that they are only imagining the

earlier rules against sleeping in beds. Some of the animals go to check the

Fourth Commandment, and discover that it actually reads "No animal shall

sleep in a bed with sheets". Rather than realizing that the Commandment has

been altered, the animals accept that they must have forgotten the ending

before. The windmill is destroyed in a storm, and Napoleon blames it on

Snowball, and places a reward on his head.

Chapter Seven: Summary

A hard winter comes, and the animals face near-starvation. To hide the

food shortage from the outside world, Napoleon fills the grain bins with

sand to fool Mr. Whymper. He also plants several animals at strategic

locations during Mr. Whymper's visits so that he can hear them making

"casual" (and false) remarks about food surpluses and increased rations.

Napoleon announces the plan to sell a pile of timber to one of two

neighboring farmers, Mr. Frederick or Mr. Pilkington. At Napoleon's

bidding, Squealer announces that the hens will have to give up their eggs

to be sold for money to buy grain. The hens refuse at first, but Napoleon

cuts off their food rations until they relent, after nine of them have died

from starvation. All sorts of acts of mischief and vandalism begin to

surface, which are immediately attributed to Snowball. Soon after, Napoleon

announces that an attempted rebellion has been discovered, and has several

of the farm animals executed. The remaining animals react with fear and

horror, and huddle around Clover the mare for comfort. She reminds them of

Old Major's glorious speech and leads them all in "Beasts of England,"

which prompts Napoleon to forbid the singing of the song and replace it

with the song "Animal Farm, Animal Farm, never through me shall thou come

to harm".

Chapter Eight: Summary

The animals discover that after the executions, another commandment is

different from how they remembered it; the Sixth Commandment now reads "No

animal shall kill another animal without cause". Napoleon has a long poem

praising his leadership painted on the side of the barn, and it is

announced that the gun will be fired each year on his birthday. All orders

are delivered through Squealer, with Napoleon living in near seclusion in

the farmhouse and rarely appearing on the farm in person. When he does make

public appearances, it is only while accompanied by a retinue of dogs and

other servants. Napoleon announces the sale of the pile of timber to

Frederick, a neighboring farmer whose acts of cruelty toward his animals

are legendary. After the transaction, it is revealed the Frederick paid

with forged bank notes. Napoleon pronounces a death sentence onto

Frederick. Shortly thereafter, the farm is again attacked by neighboring

farmers, led by Frederick himself. Napoleon appeals to Pilkington to help

the cause of Animal Farm, but Pilkington's interest in the farm were only

economic, and since he did not get the pile of timber, he refuses to help,

sending Napoleon the message "Serves you right". The animals finally repel

the farmers, but only with great difficulty, with Boxer sustaining a severe

injury to his hoof and the windmill being destroyed in an explosion.

Napoleon celebrates the victory by drinking lots of whisky, and despite his

vicious hangover, the Fifth Commandment soon reads "No animal shall drink

alcohol in excess".

Chapter Nine: Summary

More and more, the animals begin to think about the generous

retirement plans that had been part of the ideology of the early

Revolution. Life is hard for the animals, and rations continue to be

reduced, except for the pigs, who are allowed to wear green ribbons on

Sundays, drink beer daily, and actually seem to be gaining weight. To keep

the animals from complaining about the obvious discrepancies, Squealer

continually reads the animals reports which detail how much better off they

are now then before the Revolution. Animal Farm is declared a Republic and

must elect a President. Napoleon is the only candidate and is elected

unanimously. Moses the raven returns after an absence of several years,

still talking about the mystical Sugarcandy Mountain. Boxer falls ill and

Napoleon promises to send him to a hospital, but the animals read the sign

of the truck as he is hauled away and discover that he is being taken to

the butcher's. Squealer eventually convinces the animals that they are

mistaken.

Chapter Ten: Summary

Years pass, and many of the older animals, who remember life before

the Revolution, die off. Only cynical Benjamin remains just as he always

was. The animal population has increased, but not as much as would have

been predicted at the Revolution's beginning. Talk of retirement for the

animals stops, and the pigs, who have become the largest group of animals

by far, form a bureaucratic class in the government. As Napoleon ages,

Squealer assumes a position of increasing power, and learns to walk

upright. He teaches the sheep to change their chant to "Four legs good, two

legs better," and the Seven Commandments are replaced with a single

commandment: "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more

equal than others". The animals are once again uneasy by the new political

developments, but they comfort themselves with the knowledge that at least

they have no human master. Squealer begins to seek out the approval of the

neighboring farmers for his efficiency and order at Animal Farm. The pigs

invite a group of townsmen to dinner to inspect the efficiency of Animal

Farm, and the men congratulate the pigs on their achievements, noting that

the animals at Animal Farm did more work and required less food than any

farm in the county. Napoleon refers to the farm animals as "the lower

classes" and announces that Animal Farm will take back its original name of

The Manor Farm. As the animal watch the dinner proceedings through the

window, they realize with horror that they can no longer tell the pigs'

faces from the human ones.

Childe Harold by G.G.Byron

Canto 1: A wayward, wild, immoral youth grows weary of his ways and seeks

to gain a surer foothold on life by traveling. A rambling account follows

in which Harold goes to Spain and Portugal, with momentary lapses where

other areas of Europe are recalled. Familiarity with the area in the reader

might make the descriptions more meaningful, but they are romantic

nevertheless.

Canto 2: Harold then journeys to the Baltics, where he is impressed by the

fierce culture of the Albanians, and the past glory of Greece. A

reminiscence and some extensive notes on the state of Greece and its

bondage to foreign powers are included. The descriptions are often

picturesque, but the poem as a whole lacks coherence. We see no growth in

Harold-- in fact, it is not a story about him at all, but rather a poetic

chronicle of travels and thoughts. As such, though, it is passable.

Canto 3: This is a far superior piece of work to the last two cantos.

Harold develops, affected by and reflecting deeply and interestingly on

Waterloo and Napoleon in Belgium, on the Alps, the Rhine and the battles

fought there. His cynicism begins to soften, and he begins to yearn for his

beloved. With the place-descriptions are woven (this time, rather than

simply interspersed as before) meditations on people, such as the Aventian

princess Julia whose love for her father affected Byron so deeply; and

Rousseau, of whom Byron is critical but admiring (see also his long

thoughtful note on this subject); and Voltaire and Gibbon, who are

acknowledged but claimed to be wrongheaded. Also, he thinks about nature as

a respite from the "madding crowd" (fortified with a prose argument in a

note), entertains what we would now call some "environmentalist" thoughts,

and finally comments on his shunning of the world's trends and his sorrow

as an estranged father to his girl. This canto is very like the meandering

thoughts of a traveler or a wanderer. But here they are fruitful and bubble

forth to a greater extent than in the first two.

Canto 4: In keeping with the progression of this poem, this canto is the

best of the four. In Italy, we see the places and hear reminiscences of the

people, but these in this canto seem oddly secondary. Harold's journey is

now admitted to be Byron's journey, and the meditations which the sites and

scenes inspire are deep and thoughtful as never before. We get much more of

an idea that this is Byron speaking to us rather than an imagined

character; indeed, Byron in the prefatory letter calls the work his most

thoughtful composition (as of 1818). He reaches highs of contemplation more

than once-- on imagination and the eternal glimpses it brings; on suffering

and painful memory; on solitude and its virtues and vices; on education; on

man's humility and state of political and spiritual slavery; on freedom; on

our poor souls and the illusory nature of love; on thought and truth; on

the joys of the wilderness and the power of the ocean; and an excellent

conclusion which humbly and thoughtfully closes the mind's eye of the

reader in rest. Meanwhile, of course, we are shown Venice, several ancient

sites, and (for the bulk of the canto) Rome, about whose history Byron

muses, talking of the rise and fall of civilizations. We see the Pantheon,

Circus, Coliseum, Vatican... and all inspire thought and reflection. No

real conclusions are reached-- Harold/Byron does not have a sustained and

rejuvenation epiphany-- but still we get the idea that he is better for

having superfluity wrung from him on this trip. For, how can one descend to

the level of a profligate again, after tasting the greatness which man has

attained in a worldly sense, and being inspired by that to think (to some

extent at least) of great things in a spiritual sense?

The French Lieutenant's Woman by J.Fowles

The first chapter describes Lyme Regis and its Cobb, a harbor quay on

which three characters are standing: Charles Smithson, Ernestina Freeman,

and Sarah Woodruff. The describing narrator has a distinctive voice, all-

knowing yet intimate, with a wide-ranging vocabulary and evidently vast

knowledge of political and geographical history. In one sentence the

narrator sounds like a Victorian, as he remarks that the male character

recently "had severely reduced his dundrearies, which the arbiters of the

best English male fashion had declared a shade vulgar--that is, risible to

the foreigner--a year or two previously." In the next sentence he sounds

modern, as he describes how "the colors of the young lady's clothes would

strike us today as distinctly strident." The narrator's double vision and

double voice make him as important as the characters in this novel.

Charles is a middle-aged bachelor and amateur paleontologist;

Ernestina is his fiancйe, who has brought him to spend a few days with her

aunt. Out of a chivalric concern for Sarah, Charles advises her to return

from the end of the Cobb to a safer position, but she merely stares at him.

As he reflects on this curious meeting, the narrator begins to comment on

Charles's outlook on life and on the attitudes that were typical of the age

in 1867, with occasional comparisons with 1967.

Ernestina is revealed to be a pretty but conventional young woman.

Sarah is an outcast who is reputed to be pining for the French lieutenant

who has jilted her. Charles is earnest but intelligent enough to be aware

of Ernestina's limitations. When he is looking for fossils along the wooded

Undercliff, Charles discovers Sarah sleeping, and must apologize when she

awakes and sees him observing her. As he returns to Lyme, he inquires about

her at a nearby farm, whose owner tells him that the "French Loot'n'nt's

Hoer" often walks that way. Sarah's employer, having separately become

aware of that fact, forbids her to walk there any more. Sarah spends that

night contemplating suicide, and Chapter 12 ends with two questions: "Who

is Sarah? Out of what shadows does she come?"

Chapter 13 begins "I do not know," and the narrator proceeds to

discuss the difficulty of writing a story when characters behave

independently rather than do his bidding. Charles, he complains, did not

return to Lyme as the narrator had intended but willfully went down to the

Dairy to ask about Sarah. But, the narrator concedes, times have changed,

and the traditional novel is out of fashion, according to some. Novels may

seem more real if the characters do not behave like marionettes and

narrators do not behave like God. So the narrator, in effect, promises to

give his characters the free will that people would want a deity to grant

them. Likewise, the narrator will candidly admit to the artifice of the

narration and will thereby treat his readers as intelligent, independent

beings who deserve more than the manipulative illusions of reality provided

in a traditional novel.

Subsequent chapters contain representations of domestic life--a quiet

evening with Charles and Ernestina, a morning with Charles and his valet, a

concert at the Assembly Rooms. During this last, Charles reflects on where

his life seems to be leading and on the fact that, as he puts it, he has

become "a little obsessed with Sarah…or at any rate with the enigma she

presented." He returns to the Undercliff, again finds Sarah there, and is

shocked to be told by her that she is not pining for her French lieutenant,

that he is married. The next time Charles encounters her in the Undercliff

she offers Charles some fossils she has found and tells him that she thinks

she may be going mad; she asks him to meet her there once more, when she

has more time, so that she can tell him the truth about her situation and

obtain his advice.

Charles decides to seek advice himself and visits Dr. Grogan, an

elderly bachelor and an admirer of Darwin, whose theories they discuss.

When the conversation turns to Sarah, Grogan expresses the belief that she

wants to be a victim. Sarah seems to bear out his view when she explains to

Charles that she indeed became infatuated with the French lieutenant when

he was recovering from an injury in the house, where Sarah was governess,

and that she followed him when he left to return to France. She tells

Charles that she quickly realized that he had regarded her only as an

amusement, but that she "gave" herself to him nonetheless, doubly

dishonoring herself by choice as well as by circumstances. She seems to be

proud of her status as outcast, for it differentiates her from a society

she considers unjust. Charles accepts her story--even finds it fascinating.

When Charles returns to his room at the inn, he finds a telegram from

his bachelor uncle Robert, summoning him home to the family estate he is in

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