Timeless classics and modern masterpieces that challenge, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. Ideal for thought-provoking discussions.
Lord of the Flies
William Golding, 1954
304 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
December, 2011
Since first published in 1954, Lord of the Flies has stood as a sort of Rorsach test. Some readers see it as a religious allegory between good and evil...others as a Freudian battle between id vs. superego...still others as a history of the rise of civilization. Finally, many see it as a commentary on the world's political institutions.
Any, in fact all, of those readings—and more—lend themselves to Golding's chilling tale of boys gone bad.
Dracula
Bram Stoker, 1897
300-400 pp. (varies by publisher)
October 2011
Dracula is such a ripping good tale it makes one wonder: if it hadn't been for Bram Stoker, would there ever have been a vampire craze? We're still in the midst of that craze—more than 100 years later.
Stoker didn't invent vampires—they're part of ancient folk lore—nor did he invent the literary genre. But his 1897 Dracula has continued to spawn countless books, films, TV shows, paintings, video games, and silly costumes. It's the genre itself that's proved to be Undead.
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton, 1920
~ 300 pp. (varies by publisher)
September 2011
Forbidden love has always found literary expression—as far back as Tristan and Isolde, right up to the present day's Twilight series.
We're drawn to these stories because of the exquisite tension between desire and restraint. That tension mirrors our own and so, when splashed across a huge fictional canvass, our own lives feel enlarged. It's as if we, ourselves, have been part of a grander story. Edith Wharton's novel of forbidden love does just that for us.
Light in August
William Faulkner, 1932
528 pp.
August 2011
One of literature's most compulsive reads, Light in August, takes us deep into Faulkner's mythical Yoknapatawpha County and deep into the minds of his characters—divided souls all, haunted by the past and searching for a place in the present.
The novel follows three separate storylines, all linked finally by an explosion of violence at the end. Very Faulkneresque.
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster, 1924
pp. 300-400 (varies by edition)
July 2011
A funny thing about empires: empires pack up and carry their own culture with them, then impose it on those they've conquered. It's a lovely custom...if you're the ones in charge.
So it was with the British Raj in India, which is the subject of E.M. Forster's masterpiece, A Passage to India. In another Forster work, Howards End, the mantra was "only connect." In Passage the last thing the British wish to do is connect with the Indian people they rule over.