Summary

The book Kon-Tiki is Thor Heyerdahl’s account of his extraordinary 1947 voyage, with 5 colleagues, on a primitive wooden raft from South America to the Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. The journey was Heyerdahl’s effort to show that it was possible that the Polynesian’s arrived on the islands from South America, not Asia.

The account follows Heyerdahl’s recruitment of the crew, a mission to the jungle to get the wood for the raft, and the over 100 days and 4300 miles the men spent at sea before finally arriving on land. On the way they encounter storms and high seas, fish that have never been seen alive before, sharks, worries that the raft may fall apart, and the near-disaster of a man overboard. Most importantly they must learn skills long-forgotten in the age of modern transport.

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Notes

The book is named after the raft, which in turn was named after the Polynesian legend of Kon Tiki, the man who founded the Polynesian race.

Although the voyage was a success, Heyerdahl himself says that the trip did not prove his theory was correct, but that it was possible.

As well as becoming a best-selling book, the documentary made of the voyage won an Oscar in 1951 for ‘Best Documentary’.

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Sample

One day, when we were sitting as usual on the edge of the raft having a meal, so close to the water that we had only lean back to wash our mugs, we started when suddenly something behind us blew hard like a swimming horse and a big whale came up and stared at us, so close that we saw a shine like a polished shoe down through its blowhole. It was so unusual to hear real breathing out at sea, where all creatures wriggle silently without lungs and quiver their gills, that we really had a warm family feeling for our old distant cousin the whale, who like us had strayed so far out to sea. Instead of the cold, toadlike whale shark, which had not even the sense to stick up its nose for a breath of fresh air, here we had a visit from something which recalled a well-fed jovial hippopotamus in a zoological gardens and which actually breathed – that made a most pleasant impression on me – before it sank into the sea again and disappeared.

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Reviews

Although some anthropologists still disagree with Heyerdahl’s ideas, the remarkable nature of the voyage made Kon-Tiki a major success. It is seen as one of the best adventure stories of the 20th century.

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Summary

An exploration team at the North Pole find a half-frozen man, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who tells them the story of his terrible creation:

A keen scientist, Frankenstein discovers a way to reanimate body parts and so decides to make a beautiful human. However, finding that the human body is complicated, he has to make an 8-foot tall version, far uglier than he planned. Nonetheless, Frankenstein brings his ‘monster’ to life, then flees. Rejected, the monster disappears.

Some time later a crime brings the monster back into Frankenstein’s life. In the time that has passed the monster has learnt to read and communicate, and asks Frankenstein to make him a female companion. Frankenstein agrees, but then destroys his latest work.

The monster now wants revenge on Frankenstein for giving him such an unhappy life. Frankenstein, meanwhile, wants to destroy his creation. Thus monster and creator now seek each other, leading them to the isolation of the North Pole.

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Notes

Shelley gave the book a sub-heading: ‘The Modern Prometheus’. Prometheus was the titan who stole fire from the gods and was to be punished forever for his crime.

The book is written in a distinct ‘framing’ style, using letters and accounts from people involved to explain the story.

Shelley said that the idea of Frankenstein came in a ‘waking dream’.

The first edition of the book was published anonymously. Mary Shelley’s name was put on the second edition in 1823.

Shelley’s parents – William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft – were both famous writers and intellectuals, and Shelley was encouraged to participate in conversations at the house.

Many people use the term ‘Frankenstein’ to describe a crude monster; however, Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster. ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ are both used in the English language. The quote ‘It’s alive!’, taken from the 1931 film of the story, is also famous.

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Sample

It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

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Reviews

Frankenstein was a successful book upon publication, although it got a lot of negative reviews. Some reviewers felt the story disgusting or absurd; some – knowing the author was Godwin’s daughter – thought the book unladylike.

Over time, however, the story of a mad scientist creating something he cannot control has become a well-used idea, and Frankenstein is part of the literary canon. It is read as gothic fiction, science fiction, and a classic of English literature. Most people in the west have read the book, seen a movie, or are familiar with the story. Along with Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster is probably the most famous monster in western literature.

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Summary

The Divine Comedy was written between 1308 and 1321, the year Dante died.

The story concerns the poet Virgil leading Dante on a spiritual journey through the worlds of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.

It was written in 3 parts:

(i) Inferno
(ii) Purgatory (‘Purgatorio’)
(iii) Paradise (‘Paradiso’)

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Inferno

Inferno is the most famous book of the three. In it Virgil leads Dante down through the nine circles of Hell.

Circle 1: Limbo – for those who don’t believe in Christ but are otherwise virtuous
Circle 2: Lust
Circle 3: Gluttony
Circle 4: Greed
Circle 5: Anger
Circle 6: Heresy
Circle 7: Violence
Circle 8: Fraud
Circle 9: Treachery

Each circle has different ‘pockets’ (levels) and different punishments.

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Purgatory

The journey through purgatory looks at how pure love gets changed by people. These are the deadly sins that reflect Christian life.

(i) wrath
(ii) envy
(iii) pride
(iv) sloth
(v) lust
(vi) gluttony
(vii) greed

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Paradise

The final book sees Dante arrive in Paradise where he is shown the 9 sections of Heaven. Each section carries a heavenly body (the moon, planets, stars), passing through prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, until finally a vision of God is revealed.

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Sample

“Through me is the way into the woeful city; through me is the way into the eternal woe; through me is the way amongst the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, save eternal, and I eternal last. Leave every hope, ye who enter!”
These words of obscure color I saw written at the top of a gate; whereat I: “Master, their meaning is dire to me.”
And he to me, like a person well advised: “Here it behoves to leave every fear; it behoves that all cowardice should here be dead. We have come to the place where I have told thee that thou shalt see the woeful people, who have lost the good of the understanding.”

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Reviews

The Divine Comedy has moved in and out of fashion, seen as a masterpiece by some, and ignored by others. It has, however, influenced western culture and its many ideas about Hell.

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Summary

The Metamorphosis (originally Die Verwandlung) is a novella describing the life of Gregor Samsa after he wakes up one day and finds he is ‘vermin’. It is generally seen that Gregor has become an insect.

The book is often viewed in several different ways:
– as absurdist literature (literature in which very odd things happen)
– as a metaphor to how society treats people who are different
– as a metaphor, because Gregor is a salesman, to how people ‘sell out’ their lives and become things that make society worse, not better

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Notes

Kafka insisted the cover of the book did not show a type of creature. Some people believe Gregor becomes a cockroach, or a dung beetle, but there is no way of knowing.

Because the story has been translated from German, the English version had to change a few things. This is because German sentence patterns are not the same as English, and Kafka often used sentence structure to emphasise certain words.

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Sample

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.

“What’s happened to me?” he thought. It wasn’t a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer.

Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn’t get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before.

“Oh, God”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out. Doing business like this takes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on top of that there’s the curse of travelling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them. It can all go to Hell!” He felt a slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowly up on his back towards the headboard so that he could lift his head better; found where the itch was, and saw that it was covered with lots of little white spots which he didn’t know what to make of; and when he tried to feel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly back because as soon as he touched it he was overcome by a cold shudder.

He slid back into his former position. “Getting up early all the time”, he thought, “it makes you stupid. You’ve got to get enough sleep. Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury. For instance, whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning to copy out the contract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eating their breakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I’d get kicked out on the spot. But who knows, maybe that would be the best thing for me. If I didn’t have my parents to think about I’d have given in my notice a long time ago, I’d have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He’d fall right off his desk! And it’s a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. Well, there’s still some hope; once I’ve got the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him – another five or six years I suppose – that’s definitely what I’ll do. That’s when I’ll make the big change. First of all though, I’ve got to get up, my train leaves at five.”

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Reviews

Kafka’s book was well-received, and remains widely read in German and in translation. It is also often studied in schools.

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Summary

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was the first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. The 12 stories had originally appeared (one-by-one) in The Strand Magazine.

Before this, Sherlock Holmes had already appeared in two full-length books: A Study in Scarlet, and The Sign of Four.

It was followed by Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, and His Last Bow. The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear were the only ones that were not short story collections (they too were full-length books).

The stories are told through the eyes of Holmes’s sidekick, Dr. John Watson.

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Notes

Although Holmes had already appeared in two books, the release as short-stories over the course of two years in The Strand Magazine made him far more famous. The release of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was popular enough to keep Doyle writing in the short-story format.

Doyle said he based the character of Holmes on a colleague, Dr. Joseph Bell, who Doyle believed was excellent at learning a lot from small details. Bell, however, wrote to Doyle saying ‘you are Sherlock Holmes, and well you know it.’

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Sample

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion kin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer – excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-powered lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

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Reviews

Sherlock Holmes was already a well-liked character thanks to the two books and short stories; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was the perfect way for the public to buy a collection of his stories.

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Summary

Animal Farm is an allegoric novel, in that it has a secondary meaning representing a different idea. In the case of Animal Farm, the story is meant to resemble the problems and ideas that overtook Russia in the early 20th century.

The story involves a group of farmyard animals who overthrow the drunk mean Farmer Jones and then rename their farm ‘Animal Farm’. After their success the animals plan a better life. Seven rules are created to ensure all animals are equal and that the wickedness of Farmer Jones is not repeated.

However, the pigs – who are the smartest animals – begin to seek power. The two leaders, Napoleon and Snowball, cannot agree on anything. Finally Napoleon makes a move for complete control. Using a pack of dogs as his soldiers, he chases Snowball off the farm.

Napoleon makes himself a dictator, using his dogs to crush protest. He also has another pig, Squealer, convince the animals that Napoleon is improving the farm. Any disaster on the farm is blamed on Snowball. Meetings between all the animals are replaced by a committee of pigs.

Finally, the pigs begin to work with the humans. They have complete control, and the farm is back to the style of Farmer Jones. The seven rules have become one rule: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’.

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Notes

Although the book was written as an allegory to Russian politics, it can also be read as an allegory to many other countries’ political problems.

The animals are, it is believed, made to represent the following:

– Old Major, the original leader of the pigs who wants revolution, is Karl Marx and Lenin.
– Napoleon is Joseph Stalin
– Snowball is Leon Trotsky
– Squealer is Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin’s right-hand man

The original 7 rules were:

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 any other animal.
All animals are equal.

They are later changed to:
No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.

The final changes:
‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’

The way in which Napoleon and the pigs dispose of Boxer, the farm’s horse, once he stops being useful, is one of the most famous parts of the book.

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Sample

As they approached the farm Squealer, who had unaccountably been absent during the fighting, came skipping towards them, whisking his tail and beaming with satisfaction. And the animals heard, from the direction of the farm buildings, the solemn booming of a gun.
‘What is that gun firing for?’ said Boxer.
‘To celebrate our victory!’ cried Squealer.
‘What victory?’ said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe and split his hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged themselves in his hind leg.
‘What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil – the sacred soil of Animal Farm?’
‘But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!’
‘What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel like it. You do not appreciate, comrade, the mighty thing that we have done. The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon. And now-thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon we have won every inch of it back again!’
‘Then we have won back what we had before,’ said Boxer.
‘That is our victory,’ said Squealer.
They limped into the yard. The pellets under the skin of Boxer’s leg smarted painfully. He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the windmill from the foundations, and already in imagination he braced himself for the task. But for the first time it occurred to him that he was eleven years old and that perhaps his great muscles were not quite what they had once been.

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Reviews

Some critics felt that Animal Farm was too general in its allegory, and that Orwell didn’t really know Russia that well. However, others said it was a strong allegory that said a lot about the Russian state.

As time has passed, Orwell’s writing has become more popular, especially as readers have taken a wider view of the allegory: it does not only represent Russian politics but the way that ‘people’s revolutions’ around the world during the 20th century (including China and Korea) were quickly turned into dictatorships. It is now seen as a warning against trusting politicians who say they are ‘helping the people’.

Together with Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm has made Orwell one of the most respected writers on the dangers of unconditionally believing in the promise of governments and self-appointed leaders.

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Summary

The book is told through the eyes of the 6 year old white girl Scout Finch as she lives in the America’s Deep South. Despite Scout’s own adventures, the heart of the story is her viewing of the lives of her older brother Jem, and father Atticus.

At the beginning of the book Scout’s life is seen as pleasant: her well-educated widowed lawyer father Atticus gives her plenty of attention, and Jem loves and protects her. The biggest issues in her life are the fear and excitement of going to school for the first time, bullies, and the fear of the strange house down the road in which the secretive Boo Radley lives.

Things begin to change, however, when Atticus chooses to defend an uneducated black man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white girl. The people in the town begin to act depending on their racial motives, with many cursing Atticus. Jem, who had previously believed his father to be untouchable, loses his faith in justice, whilst Scout tries to understand how people can be so cruel to her father.

When Tom Robinson tries to escape from prison, the town reaches conflict point.

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Notes

Of all the characters in the book, Atticus Finch is the most famous. He is an example of a brave educated man trying to do the right thing, but who finds that the environment around him makes that almost impossible.

The failings in the justice system are also very important in the book, as Jem – to whom Atticus has taught the importance of reasoned arguments – sees reason lose to emotions and fear.

Another theme in the book is growing up through experience: in her early life, much of Scout’s education has come from Jem and Atticus. However, as Tom Robinson’s trial changes attitudes, Scout begins to learn more about the world.

The writing style in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is also a major point: Scout’s narrative is done in a Southern US voice, with lots of colloquial and accented words. The style of narrative – and Lee’s ability to make an exciting but educating story told by a 6 year old – have been widely praised.

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Sample

The courtroom was still, and again I wondered where the babies were. Judge Taylor’s cigar was a brown speck in the center of his mouth; Mr. Gilmer was writing on one of the yellow pads on his table, trying to outdo the court reporter, whose hand was jerking rapidly. “Shoot,” I muttered, “we missed it.”
Atticus was halfway through his speech to the jury. He had evidently pulled some papers from his briefcase that rested beside his chair, because they were on his table. Tom Robinson was toying with them.
“…absence of any corroborative evidence, this man was indicted on a capital charge and is now on trial for his life…”
I punched Jem. “How long’s he been at it?”
“He’s just gone over the evidence,” Jem whispered, “and we’re gonna win, Scout. I don’t see how we can’t. He’s been at it ‘bout five minutes. He made it as plain and easy as—well, as I’da explained it to you.
You could’ve understood it, even.”
“Did Mr. Gilmer—?”
“Sh-h. Nothing new, just the usual. Hush now.”
We looked down again. Atticus was speaking easily, with the kind of detachment he used when he dictated a letter. He walked slowly up and down in front of the jury, and the jury seemed to be attentive: their heads were up, and they followed Atticus’s route with what seemed to be appreciation. I guess it was because Atticus wasn’t a thunderer.
Atticus paused, then he did something he didn’t ordinarily do. He unhitched his watch and chain and placed them on the table, saying, “With the court’s permission—”
Judge Taylor nodded, and then Atticus did something I never saw him do before or since, in public or in private: he unbuttoned his vest, unbuttoned his collar, loosened his tie, and took off his coat. He never loosened a scrap of his clothing until he undressed at bedtime, and to Jem and me, this was the equivalent of him standing before us stark naked. We exchanged horrified glances.

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Reviews

To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and has become synonymous with the American Civil Rights and racism issues of the 1960s.

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Summary

The story is told through the eyes of a young German man named Axel as he, his uncle Professor Lidenbrock, and near-silent but strong Icelandic guide Hans, follow clues left by a previous explorer down a volcano and into the centre of the Earth.

Having found and decoded an old clue left by an Icelandic archeologist, Lidenbrock tears his nephew Axel away from his fiancee Grauben and takes him to Iceland. Here they hire the guide Hans to take them down an extinct volcano. Although he trusts his uncle to be a brilliant man, Axel doesn’t really want to be there, and spends much of his time thinking of the girl he has left behind, and wondering whether he will remain alive and see her again.

As they venture deeper into the centre of the Earth, the trio lose contact with each other, then are reunited. They then find subterranean rivers, possible evidence of life, and a large lake. As they cross the lake they discover that, despite being beneath the ground, it has weather. Finally, they see the lake also contains life. It is at this moment that they decide it is time to find a way back to the surface.

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Notes

The title of the book is also translated as Journey to the Centre of the Earth (with no ‘A’).

Some versions of the book change the professor’s name to Professor Von Hardwigg.

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was published just as the science of geology was becoming more widely known. Many of the geological ideas in the book were quite new at the time (many were based on a geological book published in the 1830s).

The book is made up of many short chapters (45).

Many of the recent films based on the book have tried to add more excitement to the story, with meetings and fights with dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

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Sample

We lay there, our blood running cold with unspeakable terror. The fireball, half of it white, half azure blue, and the size of a ten-inch shell, moved slowly about the raft, but revolving on its own axis with astonishing velocity, as if whipped round by the force of the whirlwind. Here it comes, there it glides, now it is up the ragged stump of the mast, thence it lightly leaps on the provision bag, descends with a light bound, and just skims the powder magazine.Horrible! we shall be blown up; but no, the dazzling disk of mysterious light nimbly leaps aside; it approaches Hans, who fixes his blue eye upon it steadily; it threatens the head of my uncle, who falls upon his knees with his head down to avoid it. And now my turn comes; pale and trembling under the blinding splendour and the melting heat, it drops at my feet, spinning silently round upon the deck; I try to move my foot away, but cannot.

A suffocating smell of nitrogen fills the air, it enters the throat,it fills the lungs. We suffer stifling pains.

Why am I unable to move my foot? Is it riveted to the planks? Alas!the fall upon our fated raft of this electric globe has magnetised every iron article on board. The instruments, the tools, our guns,are clashing and clanking violently in their collisions with each other; the nails of my boots cling tenaciously to a plate of iron let into the timbers, and I cannot draw my foot away from the spot. At last by a violent effort I release myself at the instant when the ball in its gyrations was about to seize upon it, and carry me off my feet ….

Ah! what a flood of intense and dazzling light! the globe has burst,and we are deluged with tongues of fire!

Then all the light disappears. I could just see my uncle at full length on the raft, and Hans still at his helm and spitting fire under the action of the electricity which has saturated him.

But where are we going to? Where?

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Reviews

Although much of the geological science of the book has since been proven to be incorrect, the fantasy of exploring the centre of the Earth still appeals to many people.

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Summary

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a look at the corruption of a human soul.

The story describes a young, good-looking rich man named Dorian Gray who, at the beginning of the book, has his picture painted by Basil Hallward. Dorian then meets a man by the name of Lord Henry who teaches him the joys of hedonism, and to live a life that only looks for beauty and self-enjoyment.

As Dorian begins to enjoy his life, he makes a wish that he could keep his youth and good looks, and that his picture would age instead of him. Following Lord Henry’s ideals, he cruelly rejects the interests of a young actress named Sibyl whom he previous loved, then returns home and finds his picture has changed. He realises his wish has come true. From this moment he begins an 18-year binge of wicked debauchery, during which he never ages. Meanwhile, however, his picture – which Dorian is now hiding in his attic – becomes more and more hideous, reminding him of his evil.

The story comes to a head as Basil begins to question Dorian’s life, and Sibyl’s brother James seeks revenge for his sister. Dorian also starts to question his own life, but the damage to his soul has already been done.

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Notes

Although Oscar Wilde is one of the West’s most famous writers, The Picture of Dorian Gray was his only novel.

The book was re-edited in 1891 in order to appease people who called the book homoerotic. The original unedited and uncensored version only became available in 2011.

Wilde’s own lifestyle – homosexual in upper-class but conservative Victorian England – and his style of witty but cruel quips, made him a controversial figure during his life. He spent time in jail due to a relationship with a man, and died in poverty in France.

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Sample

Finally, he came back, went over to the picture, and examined it. In the dim arrested light that struggled through the cream-coloured silk blinds, the face appeared to him to be a little changed. The expression looked different. One would have said that there was a touch of cruelty in the mouth. It was certainly strange.

He turned round and, walking to the window, drew up the blind. The bright dawn flooded the room and swept the fantastic shadows into dusky corners, where they lay shuddering. But the strange expression that he had noticed in the face of the portrait seemed to linger there, to be more intensified even. The quivering ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing.

He winced and, taking up from the table an oval glass framed in ivory Cupids, one of Lord Henry’s many presents to him, glanced hurriedly into its polished depths. No line like that warped his red lips. What did it mean?

He rubbed his eyes, and came close to the picture, and examined it again. There were no signs of any change when he looked into the actual painting, and yet there was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. It was not a mere fancy of his own. The thing was horribly apparent.

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Reviews

The Picture of Dorian Gray originally met terrible reviews, with some people suggesting Wilde should be charged by the police for indecency due to the suggestions of homo-eroticism between some of the male characters.

It has now, however, become to be seen as a great piece of literature, and the vanity and hedonism of its characters a reflection of mankind’s obsession with beauty and enjoyment.

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Summary

The first part of Dracula is told through the eyes of Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor who is sent to Transylvania, Romania to work on some papers for a mysterious Count Dracula. Whilst staying at the Count’s castle Harker begins to realise his host has an unusual lifestyle: he is most active at night, and does not want his guests to leave their rooms. One night Harker tries to escape from the castle, only to meet three female vampires who bewitch him. He is only saved by the Count, because the Count needs Harker’s legal advice.

Harker having returned home, the second part of the story is told through a ship’s log which describes how the boat came to run aground off the coast of England, the crew haunted by a wild dog and then killed, and the captain chained to the ship’s helm (the steering wheel). The contents of the boat are all coming from Transylvania.

The third part of the story has Dracula now in England, and follows Harker and his friends as they realise what the Count is really doing there. One friend, the beautiful young Lucy, begins to slowly lose all her strength, getting weaker every day. The friends call for Professor Van Helsing, who realises what is destroying Lucy but will not tell the others. Lucy eventually dies and is buried, only for stories of an undead woman wandering the night to come out.

The friends, now led by Van Helsing, begin the final war on Dracula, which takes them back to Transylvania.

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Notes

Stoker’s vampire story is the most famous vampire story, and for many people vampires equal Dracula. However, there were other vampire stories before this.

The novel is written as an adventure, and switches between different narrators and styles (Harker, Harker’s wife, his friends, the ship’s log, letters), each writing short sections. This method of changing the storyteller throughout the story is a popular modern device called ‘piecemeal’.

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Sample

There was nobody about, and I made a search over every inch of the ground, so as not to lose a chance. I went down even into the vaults, where the dim light struggled, although to do so was a dread to my very soul. Into two of these I went, but saw nothing except fragments of old coffins and piles of dust. In the third, however, I made a discovery.

There, in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count! He was either dead or asleep. I could not say which, for eyes were open and stony, but without the glassiness of death, and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all their pallor. The lips were as red as ever. But there was no sign of movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart.

I bent over him, and tried to find any sign of life, but in vain. He could not have lain there long, for the earthy smell would have passed away in a few hours. By the side of the box was its cover, pierced with holes here and there. I thought he might have the keys on him, but when I went to search I saw the dead eyes, and in them dead though they were, such a look of hate, though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place, and leaving the Count’s room by the window, crawled again up the castle wall. Regaining my room, I threw myself panting upon the bed and tried to think.

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Reviews

Reviews were mostly positive for Dracula when it was published, but it never sold well during Stoker’s life. Later interest in vampire stories, sparked by movies, have increased the popularity of Dracula.

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