English literature

The Rachel Papers

“I was, after all, a man of the world.” Chapter 1: Introduction to Charles Highway The novel opens with Charles Highway, a precocious and self-absorbed teenager, preparing for […]

English literature

London Fields

“Murder considered as one of the fine arts.” London Fields follows the intertwined lives of three central characters in a decaying, pre-millennial London. The narrator, Samson Young, is […]

English literature

Money

“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.” Part One […]

English literature

Lucky Jim

“The decision that he could, after all, bear her presence for a short time longer was reached without difficulty.” — Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim Chapter 1 Jim Dixon, […]

English literature

The Comforters

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” — John Milton (Epigraph referenced in The Comforters) Chapter […]

English literature

Under the Net

“All is to be dared, for a person of courage has no need of any other virtue.” Chapter 1: A Disrupted Life Jake Donaghue, a struggling writer and […]

English literature

The Sea, The Sea

“The sea which is everywhere the same and everywhere different.” — Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea Part One: Arrival at Shruff End Charles Arrowby, a retired theater […]

English literature

The Buddha of Suburbia

“My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.” Chapter 1: The Suburban Beginning Karim Amir, a mixed-race teenager, introduces himself and his […]