The Plague by Albert Camus
The book is divided into five sections, each of which tells of a distinct period in the plague’s takeover of Oran, the port city in northern Algeria where the story is set. Part 1 describes Oran as it was before the plague and just after the disease has taken hold. Bernard Rieux, the town doctor, notices a dead rat in the hallway of his apartment building one ordinary morning, and thereafter, nothing in his or anyone’s life in Oran is normal. Thousands of the town’s rats die, then cats and dogs, and finally the disease starts to infect people. Jean Tarrou, a visitor trapped in Oran, keeps a journal about the plague’s effect on the people of Oran, and it includes stories about characters like Joseph Grand, an insignificant city worker, and Cottard, a man who is mysteriously happy about the outbreak of the plague. By the end of this section, the people of Oran are forced to realize their dull and habitual ways may be gone for good. The town gates are shut, and Oran is now a prison cell, where no one can go out or come in.
Part 2 of the book tells what happens when the plague becomes “the concern of all of us.” (67). In this section, the townspeople struggle to fight their individual battles against the plague and the suffering and separation it forces them to endure. Characters like Raymond Rambert, who begins negotiating with smugglers, try to imagine ways to escape the city and meet up again with their loved ones. Father Paneloux, the town priest, preaches a fiery sermon that claims that God has sent the disease upon the people of Oran as a punishment for their sins. Tarrou starts voluntary sanitary squads in town, and many people, including Grand and Rambert, volunteer to help.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A painter, Basil Hallward, paints a most exquisite portrait of his muse, the handsome young man named Dorian Gray. During the last session of painting, Dorian, who has until this point been completely innocent both of his beauty and of the world, meets Basil’s friend Lord Henry Wotton, who opens his eyes to the ephemeral nature of his own beauty and tells him that he should experience life to the fullest. Upon the completion of the portrait, Dorian wishes out loud that the painting would grow old, and not he. Due to Harry’s influence, Dorian goes out looking for passion and falls in love with a young actress of considerable talent, Sibyl Vane. When she falls in love with him, however, she realizes the falseness of her stage life and performs very poorly in front of Basil and Harry when they come to meet her; Dorian is thoroughly disappointed, loses all respect and love for her, and breaks the engagement. He goes home to find that the painting has become slightly more cruel-looking, and the next morning, just after resolving to go back and marry her regardless, finds out that Sibyl has killed herself. The painting fills him with fear and he has it locked up in an old schoolroom in his house.
Gulliver’s Travels
Samuel Gulliver loves travelling and sailing.But he is in danger.The sea and wind are strong.The sea and wind break his ship.He is cold,tired,hungry and thirsty.He sees an island.He swims to it.He runs onto the beach and he sleeps there. Everybody in Lilliput sleeps.But the watchman doesn’t sleep.He goes out in the cold and rain.He walks alone.The watchman is wet and unhappy.It is a very dark night and he is afraid.He walks.He falls down.He looks up.There are strange things around him.
The watchman sees a giant.He is afraid.He escapes.He looks back again.He is sure.It is a giant.
He runs to king’s palace.But the guards stop him.
“The king has visitors.They are signing a wedding contract.
the guards say to him.But the watchman runs past them into the meeting room.
“There is a giant on the beach!? the watchman shouts.
Nobody listens to the watchman.
King Little and King Bombo sign a wedding contract.Because King Little’s daugter Princess Glory is marrying King Bombo’s son Prince David.The watchman comes to palace. “There is a giant on the beach the watchman shouts.Nobody listens to him.Then King Little’s men carry presents.
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Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe opens with an extremely quick rundown of Robinson’s family life: he was born in 1632; his parents are German, and left their hometown of Bremen to settle in Hull, in England. They are middle-class, and Robinson’s father strongly advocates a middle-class life for Robinson too, encouraging him to pursue law as a profession. Both of Robinson’s brothers are missing one was killed in battle, and the other hasn’t been heard from since he began a life of travel and adventure. Robinson wants to pursue travel as well, but is dissuaded by his father. In 1651, against his parents’ wishes, however, Robinson leaves on a series of ill-fated voyages in search of indigenous non-Western peoples with whom he can trade. On one such voyage, Robinson’s ship is captured by pirates and he is made personal slave to the pirate king. After two years, he manages to escape with a fellow prisoner — a Moor, Xury — and the two are taken in by a Portuguese trading ship and brought to Brazil. Robinson becomes quite friendly with the Captain of the ship and sells Xury to him on the condition that he free Xury in ten years (if, the Captain insists, Xury converts to Protestantism). Robinson sets up a plantation in Brazil, growing tobacco, and it quickly begins prospering. Though he could stay and continue to manage his plantation, however, Robinson is struck with the urge to take to sea again, and leaves on a voyage that will eventually lead to disaster. The ship encounters a huge storm, and Robinson is the only survivor to make it onshore a deserted island. He begins to make a life on the island, and will stay there for 28 years.