“The sea in summer is always the same, but the people who come to see it change.” Chapter 1: Arrival in the Seaside Town The narrator, Maria, returns […]
Japanese literature
South of the Border, West of the Sun
“I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it—to be fed so much love I […]
German literature
The Emperor’s Tomb
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Chapter 1: The Early Years The novel opens with the protagonist, Franz Ferdinand Trotta, reflecting on his […]
Russian literature
Glory
“The only way back is forward.” Chapter 1: Early Years Martin Edelweiss, a young Russian émigré, grows up in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg in a privileged but emotionally distant […]
Russian literature
Mary
“Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature. You never can tell what pebble she will pick up from the shore of life to keep among her treasures…” Chapter […]
Russian literature
The Cherry Orchard
“Oh, my orchard! After the dark, stormy autumn and the cold winter, you are young again and full of happiness…” Act 1 The play opens at the estate […]
French literature
French Rhapsody
“Time is a thief, but memory is a smuggler.” The novel French Rhapsody follows Alain Massoulier, a middle-aged doctor in Paris who receives an unexpected cassette tape in […]
American literature
My Ántonia
“Optima dies… prima fugit.” (The best days… are the first to flee.) — Virgil Introduction My Ántonia follows Jim Burden, a nostalgic narrator, as he recounts his childhood […]
English literature
Brideshead Revisited
“I am not I: thou art not he or she: they are not they.” — Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited Prologue: Et in Arcadia Ego Captain Charles Ryder, a […]