“The aspidistra is the true middle-class emblem, because it is the kind of plant that you can’t kill even if you want to.” Chapter 1: Gordon Comstock’s Rebellion […]
English literature
Homage to Catalonia
“This war, in which I played so ineffectual a part, has left me with memories that are mostly evil, and yet I do not wish that I had […]
English literature
The Road to Wigan Pier
“The truth is that to many people, ‘Socialism’ means simply the wages-system plus electric light and bathrooms.” — George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier Part One: Observations […]
English literature
Number9Dream
“The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Chapter 1: Goatwriter The novel opens with Eiji Miyake, a 20-year-old from a rural Japanese island, arriving in […]
English literature
Black Swan Green
“Hang on, I thought, if I can see the stars from here, then the stars can see me.” January: Hangman Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor lives in the small English […]
English literature
Cloud Atlas
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” — Cloud Atlas The Pacific […]
English literature
The Grass is Singing
“It is by the failures and misfits of a civilization that one can best judge its weaknesses.” Chapter 1: The Murder The novel opens with a newspaper report […]
English literature
The Golden Notebook
“The two women were alone in the London flat.” Free Women: 1 The novel opens with Anna Wulf and her friend Molly Jacobs reflecting on their lives as […]
English literature
Earthly Powers
“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.” Chapters […]
English literature
A Clockwork Orange
“What’s it going to be then, eh?” Part 1: Alex’s World The novel opens with Alex, a 15-year-old delinquent, and his gang of “droogs” (Pete, Georgie, and Dim) […]