Book mentions in this thread

  • Votes: 11

    Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics)

    by Jane Austen

  • Votes: 7

    The Great Gatsby

    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its fictional narrative. That era, known for profound economic prosperity, the development of jazz music flapper culture, new technologies in communication (motion pictures, broadcast radio, recorded music) forging a genuine mass culture; and bootlegging, along with other criminal activity, is plausibly depicted in Fitzgerald's novel. Fitzgerald uses many of these societal developments of the 1920s that were to build Gatsby's stories from many of the simple details like automobiles to broader themes like Fitzgerald's discreet allusions to the organized crime culture which was the source of Gatsby's fortune. Fitzgerald depicts the garish society of the Roaring Twenties by placing the book's plotline within the historical context of the era.
  • Votes: 7

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    by Oscar Wilde

    A handsome, dissolute man who sells his soul for eternal youth is horrified to see the reflection of his degeneration in the distorted features of his portrait.
  • Votes: 3

    The Metamorphosis

    by Franz Kafka

  • Votes: 1

    Crime and Punishment

    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • Votes: 1

    The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

    by James Hogg

  • Votes: 1

    Animal Farm

    by George Orwell

    Animal Farm is an allegorical novella reflecting events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism. In the book, Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, summons the animals on the farm together for a meeting, during which he refers to humans as "enemies" and teaches the animals a revolutionary song called "Beasts of England." When Major dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, assume command and consider it a duty to prepare for the Rebellion. The animals revolt, driving the drunken, irresponsible farmer Mr Jones, as well as Mrs Jones and the other human caretakers and employees, off the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm." They adopt the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is, "All animals are equal." The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story; U.S. publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime kept it. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 - 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
  • Votes: 1

    The Brothers Karamazov

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    The violent lives of three sons are exposed when their father is murdered and each one attempts to come to terms with his guilt.
  • Votes: 1

    We Need to Talk About Kevin

    by Lionel Shriver