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My Name Is Aram
William Saroyan 1940 (An open and curious boy growing up in an Armenian community in California encounters the rich quirkiness of his family and neighbors.) Writing from the spirit of memory. Not a record of specific memories, but effortless intuitive writing that naturally conjures the ethos, tinged with wistfulness, that can accompany the distant remembrance […]
The Little Prince
(Le Petit Prince) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 (A little man leaves his tiny planet to explore the universe, only to discover that the most important things in life can be found anywhere.) As hackneyed as the term “gem” is in the description of short and delightful books, The Little Prince has got to be the epitome. What […]
The History of Mr. Polly
H. G. Wells 1910 (A man of precisely 37.5 years of age can’t seem to find success or happiness in life… perhaps he has to do something drastic.) “HOLE!” said Mr. Polly, and then for a change, and with greatly increased emphasis: “ ‘Ole!” He paused, and then broke out with one of his private and […]
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy 1886 (The fortunes of a strong-willed hay-trusser prove to be as volatile as he is.) Michael Henchard is an unemployed field laborer who, under the influence of rum at a fair, impulsively starts to auction off his wife and baby daughter, to much laughter. His wife stands. A hush falls as a sailor actually puts five […]
Madame Bovary
October 21, 2020 / Leave a comment
Gustave Flaubert 1857 (An unhappily married woman pursues a lifelong quest for the fulfillment of her romantic desires, by any means necessary.) When a novelist is said to rebel against romanticism, anyone with an imaginative, adventurous, passionate, chivalrous, or spiritual streak may be forgiven for wanting to give it a pass. Such a writer sounds […]
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