Round One ENG 4U1

There is nothing like a good book! “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” (Kejllor) “We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” (Skinner)

Pride and Prejudice Spirited Elizabeth Bennet is one of a family of five daughters, and with no male heir, the Bennet estate must someday pass to their priggish cousin William Collins. Therefore, the girls must marry well-and thus is launched the story of Elizabeth and the arrogant bachelor Mr. Darcy, in a novel renowned as the epitome of romance and wit. Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's masterwork, an entertaining portrait of matrimonial rites and rivalries, timeless in its hilarity and its honesty.

A Clockwork Orange Taking place in a futuristic London, England, this novel explores a totalitarian Super-State, which provides little law and civil protection. Society has fallen into a dangerous state of complacency, oblivious to the growing destructive nature of its youth. Alex is a 15 year- old, gang leader who spends his time indulging in rape, theft, and drugs. Through the betrayal of his “droogs” (friends), he is caught and sentenced to 14 years in prison. To get out of this sentence, he decides to become a subject in an experimental treatment called “Ludivico’s Technique” (a combination of brainwashing and torture) that is supposed to “cure him” of his violent nature. He is released and discovers that he can’t defend himself in a world that is still just as violent as he left it. This novel is a disturbing story of free-will vs. pre-determined choice.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Gray is a vain and arrogant young man, who hs the opportunity to never age. He sits for a portrait that turns out so well that the artist attributes the success to the beauty of the subject. Gray meets Lord Henry, whose unsavoury attitude about life impresses the young man. He proclaims that he would sell his soul to preserve the beauty captured in his portrait, and then gives himself over to debauchery and selfish, pleasureable pursuits. As Gray’s behaviour becomes unspeakable, his portrait changes to reflect the man, becoming the very image of Gray’s truly twisted nature.

Brave New World Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, and a perverse distaste for the pleasure of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress.… Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece

1984 Orwell, a noted socialist, wrote this novel in 1948 in the aftermath of WWII and the onset of the worries about communism. Winston lives in an empire called Oceania (former U.K) that is always at war. The government is run by a mysterious figurehead named Big Brother, who is “always watching.” Winston must tow the line or be arrested by the Thought Police for rebellious thoughts and/or actions. His job is to change history to suit the history that the government says is true—even if it changes overnight. When Winston meets Julia, she seems just like him, interested in independent thought and independent action. But is the thrill of illegal thoughts and joining a mysterious rebel brotherhood enough to keep you strong in the face of torture?

Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn't live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Published in the early 1960s, Kesey’s novel, taking place in a mental hospital, deals with many themes that plagued America at the time (specifically personal autonomy and the rebellion against established authority). R.P. Murphy doesn’t feel like doing a stretch in prison for his crimes, so he convinces the powers that be that he is “insane” to get out of his work detail. Through the amusing, degrading, and even violent contest of wills between patient Randall Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, Kesey emphasises the stigma associated with mental illness and applies it thematically to all institutions who rule with an iron fist over its citizens.

Flowers for Algernon With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie''s intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie?

The Handmaid’s Tale In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....