Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart Of Darkness

Source:http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanfiction/heart-of-darkness-summary.html#.WMLT58DyuUk

At the beginning of the novella Heart of Darkness Marlow, a thoughtful mariner, sets off a journey up to the Congo River to meet Kurtz, a man known for his great abilities. Marlow is offered a job as a riverboat captain by a Belgian Company to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters prevalent disorganization and cruelty in the Company's stations. The native inhabitants of that region have been enforced in the Company's service, and they undergo a terrible overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company's agents.

Marlow arrives at the Central Station that was run by the general manager, a conspiratorial character. He has been trapped there because his steamship has been sunk. He spends several months waiting for the parts to repair it. While his stay at the central station, his interest in Kurtz grows. The manager and the brick maker seem to be afraid of Kurtz as he can be a great threat to their position. It is rumored that Kurtz is severely ill, so the repair of the sunken ship is delayed. Marlow finally gets the parts he needs to repair his ship. After the maintenance of the ship the manager sets out with a few agents and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river. The dense jungle and the deadening silence make everyone aboard a little nervous and the occasional glimpse of a native village and the sound of drums worse the situation.

Marlow and his crew arrive at a hut with stacked firewood. It is written on a note saying that the wood is for them, but they should approach the fire very cautiously. Shortly after the steamboat has taken on the firewood, it is surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked by an unseen group of natives, who throw arrows from the forest. The African helmsman, a crew member of the ship, is killed. After sometime, Marlow frightens the natives away with the ship's steam whistle. Marlow and his companions arrive at Kurtz's Inner Station, thinking that Kurtz might have died. They come ashore and meet a half-crazed Russian trader, who assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood. The Russian claims that Kurtz has gone mad and cannot be explained on the normal moral judgment. Marlow finds that Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone on several brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The method of his raids for the collection of ivory is very brutal and barbaric which can be proved by the human heads hanging on the fence posts. The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station-house on a stretcher, and suddenly a large group of native warriors comes out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them, and the natives disappear into the woods. When the manager brings Kurtz, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer, a beautiful native woman, seemingly Kurtz's mistress, appears on the shore and glares at the ship. The Russian reveals to Marlow, after vowing him to secrecy, that Kurtz himself had ordered the attack on the boat to make them believe he was dead so that they might turn back and leave him to his plans. The Russian then leaves the crew in the boat and sails by canoe. The same night, Kurtz disappears and Marlow goes out in search of him. He finds him crawling on all fours toward the native camp saying that he has to be there for a ritual. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river the next morning, but Kurtz's health is degrading very fast. Marlow listens very carefully to Kurtz talk while he guides the ship, and Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including a pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends with a unclear message that says, "Exterminate all the brutes!" The steamer breaks down, and they have to stop for repairs. Meanwhile, Kurtz dies, uttering his last words—"The horror! The horror! "—in the presence of the bewildered Marlow. Marlow falls ill soon after and luckily survives. When he returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz's his fiancée, she is still in mourning, even though it has been over a year since Kurtz's death. She praises him as a paragon of virtue and achievement. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her that Kurtz's last word was her name. 

A Farewell to Arms By Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms 

Source:https://www.enotes.com/topics/a-farewell-to-arms

Frederic Henry, the protagonist in A Farewell to Arms, is a young American in Italy serving, as Hemingway did, as an ambulance driver during World War I. He meets Catherine Barkly, newly arrived with a group of British nurses who are to set up a hospital near the front. Frederic likes Catherine, whom he visits as often as he can between ambulance trips to evacuate the wounded.

Catherine, who has recently lost her fiancé in combat, is vulnerable. Probably she feels more emotion for Frederic than he feels for her. He is about to leave for the front, where an assault is being mounted. She gives him a Saint Anthony medal, but it does not assure him the protection she hopes it will. A mortar shell explodes above Frederic’s dugout, and he is wounded, much as Hemingway himself had been. He is evacuated to a hospital in Milan.

Frederic is not the perfect patient. He keeps wine under his bed and drinks as much of it as he can get away with. By the time Catherine comes to the hospital to see him, it is he who is vulnerable, and he finds that he is in love with her. She stays with him through the surgery that his wounds necessitate; he has a happy recuperation, which Catherine nurses him through. They find restaurants that are off Milan’s beaten path and take carriage rides into the surrounding countryside. Catherine often comes to Frederic’s hospital room at night. He already knows that she is pregnant from a hotel-room encounter before he left for the front.

Frederic recovers quickly, and by October, a few months after he was first injured, he is ready to go on convalescent leave with Catherine in tow. His plans are scuttled, however, when he develops jaundice, a condition the head nurse blames on his surreptitious drinking, accusing him of doing this to avoid further service at the front. When Frederic returns to his post, his unit is ordered to take its ambulances and equipment south to the Po Valley. The Allies, hard pressed by Austrian shelling and by the knowledge that German reinforcements are joining the Austrians, are pessimistic and disheartened. Hemingway shows the unglorious aspects of war in realistic detail.

Hard-pressed by the enemy, the Americans retreat, Frederic driving an ambulance south along roads cluttered with evacuees. Rain is falling, and the whole plain along which the retreat is driving becomes a quagmire. Frederic, with two Italian sergeants he has picked up, begins to drive across open country, hoping to reach Udine at the Austrian border by that route. When his ambulance becomes stuck in the mud, Frederic tries to get the Italians to help him extricate it, but they want to flee. Frederic shoots one of them, wounding him. An Italian corpsman finishes the sergeant off, putting a bullet into his head; life is cheap when people are under this sort of pressure.

When Frederic and his friends set out on foot for Udine, they see German motorcycles ahead of them. Chaos reigns as officers pull off their insignias and people try to flee in every direction. Those whom the Germans capture are given kangaroo trials and are summarily executed. Frederic is detained, and his fate seems sealed. Under cover of night, however, he escapes and jumps into a river, where he holds onto a log. He crosses the plain on foot until he can hop a freight train for Milan, where he tries to find Catherine. Learning that the contingent of British nurses has been sent to Stresa, he makes his way there, now dressed in civilian clothing. He and Catherine reunite. Learning that the authorities plan to arrest him for desertion, Frederic borrows a rowboat, and he and Catherine use it to row all night to neutral Switzerland, where they are arrested but soon released, their passports in order and Frederic’s pockets bulging with money.

They wait out the fall in Montreux in the Swiss mountains, living happily in a small inn as Catherine’s pregnancy advances. Their situation is idyllic. When it is finally time for Catherine to deliver the baby, she has a difficult time. The child is stillborn. Frederic, exhausted, goes out to get them something to eat; when he returns, he learns that Catherine has suffered a hemorrhage. He rushes to her and stays at her side, but she dies. He walks back to his hotel room in the rain.

In this novel, Hemingway has written a tragic love story, but beyond that he has written an antiwar book, one that shows the irrationality of the kind of fighting into which Frederic was drawn. The glamour and heroism of war tarnish quickly in the face of the realities that Frederic encounters in combat. That the enemy would annihilate him is not shocking; however, it is Frederic himself who is brutalized by the war. 

Emma by Jane Austen

Emma

source:

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/e/emma/book-summary

Volume One

Youthful Emma Woodhouse, whose long-time governess and friend Miss Taylor has just married Mr. Weston, takes some solace in being left alone with her aging father by claiming that she made the match herself. An old friend of the family, Mr. George Knightley, does not believe her, but in her certainty she decides that she must also marry off the young rector, Mr. Elton. Among her friends and acquaintances in the large and populous village of Highbury, she begins to notice young Harriet Smith, the pretty illegitimate seventeen-year-old who lives at Mrs. Goddard's boarding school.

Determining first to improve Harriet, Emma discourages her interest in worthy Robert Martin of Abbey-Mill Farm, declares that Harriet must be from more genteel parents than his, and fixes upon Harriet as Mr. Elton's future wife.

In bringing the two together socially, Emma does a drawing of Harriet which Mr. Elton admires and takes off to London to be framed. This appears so promising to Emma that, when Harriet receives a letter of proposal from Robert Martin, Emma discredits him and actually helps Harriet write a letter of refusal in spite of the fact that Mr. Knightley has nothing but respect for Robert. Ensuing events convince Emma that Harriet and Mr. Elton are developing a mutual regard, and she takes pride in the apparent success of her endeavor, at the same time affirming that she herself will never marry.

For the Christmas holidays Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley, respectively the brother of George Knightley and the sister of Emma, come from London with their five children to visit the Woodhouses. On December 24, which proves to be a bad day of snow, all of them, including George Knightley and Mr. Elton, go for a dinner with the Westons. There discussion turns to Frank Churchill, Weston's handsome, polished son by a former marriage (Frank had taken his uncle's name upon going to live with him) but a son who has never been seen in Highbury. John Knightley in particular thinks it oddly improper that Frank has not yet called on his newly remarried father, even though Frank lives some distance away in Yorkshire with the Churchills. There have been letters from him, of course, and a pleasant surprise of the dinner party is an announcement that a recent letter says that Frank will be coming for a visit within a fortnight, an announcement that reminds Emma that, if she were ever to marry, Frank would suit her in age, character, and condition.

The snow increases to the point that the visitors feel that they must go if they are to reach home safely. To her consternation Emma finds herself alone with Mr. Elton in the second carriage. But she is disconcerted even more when he begins insistently to declare his love for her and when he is amazed to learn that she thought him in love with Harriet. Emma's refusal of Mr. Elton's offer is firm, but she is indeed worried that he has never thought seriously of Harriet. Her worry and self-criticism continue through the night, mixed with resentment at the impertinence of Mr. Elton's aspirations toward herself. Fortunately for her, during the next few days everyone is confined to home by the weather. On the first good day, the John Knightleys return to London while Mr. Elton informs Mr. Woodhouse in a note that he is leaving for a visit to Bath: It is Emma's unhappy duty to inform Harriet about Mr. Elton and to console her, inwardly blaming herself for being in error. In addition to this disappointment in her plans, she learns that Frank Churchill has once again had to defer his visit because Mrs. Churchill is ill, a condition that many of Highbury doubt. George Knightley in particular questions Frank's real sense of duty toward Mr. Weston and, in a conversation with Emma, indicates that he does not share Highbury's (and Emma's) general tendency to think highly of the young man whom the town has never yet seen.

Volume Two

Though Miss Bates, as a harmless but compulsive talker, is disagreeable in Emma's eyes, Emma pays a duty call to her and Mrs. Bates and learns that Miss Bates' orphan niece Jane Fairfax will arrive next week for a two-months visit. Jane upon arrival is elegant, accomplished, and reserved, and Emma does not like her — likes her even less, in fact, when she learns that Jane and Frank Churchill had met at Weymouth.

George Knightley is about to tell Emma some news when Miss Bates and Jane arrive to announce that Mr. Elton, still in Bath, has become engaged to Augusta Hawkins there. Later Harriet comes to say that she has encountered Robert Martin and his sister at Ford's shop downtown, but Emma takes her mind off it by relating the news about Mr. Elton.

Frank Churchill finally arrives and is very agreeable and lively. From the time of his first visit to the Woodhouses, it is evident that Mr. and Mrs. Weston would like to make a match between him and

Emma; but the call is ended by his going off to see the Bateses and Jane Fairfax. On subsequent meetings Emma is won over by Frank, and in their discussion of Jane and her reserve Frank perfectly agrees with Emma. Faith in him is shaken when he runs off to London just to get a haircut, but he returns unabashed and continues to sparkle. At a party given by the Coles, Frank sits attentively beside Emma. Jane, it is learned, has received a new pianoforte. When Emma hints that Mr. Dixon, the husband of Jane's friend in Ireland, sent it, Frank politely agrees. Because of some impromptu dancing at the Coles, Emma and Frank later plan a dance at the Crown Inn, but everything is overthrown when Frank has to leave owing to Mrs. Churchill's illness. Before going, Frank visits the Bateses and then the Woodhouses, leaving Emma pretty well convinced that he is in love with her, though she can picture herself only as refusing him.

Emma now thinks she is in love with Frank, but his letters to Mrs. Weston make Emma think also that she can do without him. Meanwhile her attention is taken up with Harriet and the arrival of Mrs. Augusta Elton, who has ease without elegance, is vain and overly talkative, and proves to be an insufferable organizer and "manager." Mr. Knightley shows such respect for Jane Fairfax that Emma thinks he may be falling in love, but he declares that he would never ask her to marry him.

At a dinner which Emma dutifully gives for the Eltons, Jane discloses that she always fetches the mail from the post office, and Mrs. Elton insists upon coming to her general relief by finding a situation as governess for her. But Jane, who is now to stay longer with the Bateses than originally intended, says that she does not wish anything attempted at the present. In the midst of things, Mr. Weston arrives with the news that Frank will be with them again soon because on doctor's orders Mrs. Churchill must come to London for a stay in May.

Volume Three

By the time Frank Churchill returns, Emma realizes that there is no attachment on her part. The ball at the Crown Inn now takes place. When Harriet proves to have no dancing partner and Mr. Elton obviously slights her, George Knightley, who has not danced before, gallantly leads her to the set and afterward even dances with Emma.

The next day Frank rescues Harriet from some gypsies, and Emma thinks she sees something developing between them but decides not to interfere: It will be a mere passive scheme. Harriet indicates that she is interested in someone above her, and Emma is sure that it is Frank. During a gathering at which they play a word game, Frank shoves words at Jane which make George Knightley suspect that the two are involved, but Emma will not believe him.

In June a strawberry party is held at Donwell Abbey, George Knightley's estate. Emma observes George and Harriet walking together. Frank does not arrive; Jane Fairfax leaves early to walk home; and finally Frank arrives in agitation, not at all his usual smooth self. The next day on an exploring party to Box Hill, Emma and Frank flirt; Jane appears bothered; and Emma is rude to Miss Bates. When Emma goes to make amends the next morning, she learns that Jane has accepted a position as governess and will be leaving soon. Frank too has to leave, but immediately, for Mrs. Churchill is ill and, in fact, soon dies. Emma feels sorry for Jane's having to take a position, but her attentions are repulsed.

Ten days later the Westons receive a brief letter from Frank in which he explains that he and Jane have been engaged since their being together at Weymouth; Mr. Churchill now gives his consent. It turns out that Harriet has not been thinking of Frank at all but rather of George Knightley. When Emma learns this, she is awakened to the fact that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself and she wishes that she had never seen Harriet and had let her marry Robert Martin. Knightley returns from a business trip, learns the news, and commiserates with Emma, who assures him that she has never been captivated by Frank. The revelation leads Knightley to declare his own feelings for Emma, and they become engaged, though Emma knows that they cannot marry as long as she has to take care of her father, for she cannot leave him and he will not leave his home.

A very reasonable letter from Frank to Mrs. Weston explains satisfactorily his conduct at Highbury and his and Jane's need for secrecy. Emma is relieved, but she cannot set her mind at rest about Harriet, who now goes to visit the John Knightleys in London. Emma and Jane become reconciled as friends; George Knightley decides that, since Emma cannot leave her father, he will live with them; then it takes the combined persuasive forces of Emma, Knightley, and the Westons to get Mr. Woodhouse to agree to the marriage. When Harriet decides to marry Robert Martin after all, Emma feels free enough that, after some small delaying tactics by Mr. Woodhouse, she and George Knightley are wed in "perfect happiness."

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

source:http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bluesteye/summary.html

                                              Nine-year-old Claudia and ten-year-old Frieda MacTeer live in Lorain, Ohio, with their parents. 

It is the end of the Great Depression, and the girls’ parents are more concerned with making ends meet than with lavishing attention upon their daughters, but there is an undercurrent of love and stability in their home. 
The MacTeers take in a boarder, Henry Washington, and also a young girl named Pecola. Pecola’s father has tried to burn down his family’s house, and Claudia and Frieda feel sorry for her.

 Pecola loves Shirley Temple, believing that whiteness is beautiful and that she is ugly.

Pecola moves back in with her family, and her life is difficult. Her father drinks, her mother is distant, and the two of them often beat one another. Her brother, Sammy, frequently runs away. Pecola believes that if she had blue eyes, she would be loved and her life would be transformed. Meanwhile, she continually receives confirmation of her own sense of ugliness—the grocer looks right through her when she buys candy, boys make fun of her, and a light-skinned girl, Maureen, who temporarily befriends her makes fun of her too. She is wrongly blamed for killing a boy’s cat and is called a “nasty little black bitch” by his mother.

We learn that Pecola’s parents have both had difficult lives. Pauline, her mother, has a lame foot and has always felt isolated. She loses herself in movies, which reaffirm her belief that she is ugly and that romantic love is reserved for the beautiful. She encourages her husband’s violent behavior in order to reinforce her own role as a martyr. She feels most alive when she is at work, cleaning a white woman’s home. She loves this home and despises her own. Cholly, Pecola’s father, was abandoned by his parents and raised by his great aunt, who died when he was a young teenager. He was humiliated by two white men who found him having sex for the first time and made him continue while they watched. He ran away to find his father but was rebuffed by him. By the time he met Pauline, he was a wild and rootless man. He feels trapped in his marriage and has lost interest in life.

Cholly returns home one day and finds Pecola washing dishes. With mixed motives of tenderness and hatred that are fueled by guilt, he rapes her. When Pecola’s mother finds her unconscious on the floor, she disbelieves Pecola’s story and beats her. Pecola goes to Soaphead Church, a sham mystic, and asks him for blue eyes. Instead of helping her, he uses her to kill a dog he dislikes.

Claudia and Frieda find out that Pecola has been impregnated by her father, and unlike the rest of the neighborhood, they want the baby to live. They sacrifice the money they have been saving for a bicycle and plant marigold seeds. They believe that if the flowers live, so will Pecola’s baby. The flowers refuse to bloom, and Pecola’s baby dies when it is born prematurely. Cholly, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source:http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-great-gatsby/summary

In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway moves from Minnesota to work as a bond salesman in New York. Nick rents a house in West Egg, a suburb of New York on Long Island full of the "new rich" who have made their fortunes too recently to have built strong social connections. Nick graduated from Yale and has connections in East Egg, a town where the people with social connections and "old" money live. One night Nick drives to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, a classmate of Nick's at Yale. There, he meets Jordan Baker, a beautiful and cynical professional golfer. Jordan tells Nick that Tom is having an affair. Upon returning home from dinner, Nick sees his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby holding out his arms toward the Long Island Sound. Nick looks out across the water, but sees only a green light blinking at the end of a dock on the far shore.

A few days later, Tom invites Nick to a party in New York City. On the way, Tom picks up his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George Wilson, the owner of an auto shop an industrial area between West Egg and New York City called the Valley of Ashes. At the party, Myrtle gets drunk and makes fun of Daisy. Tom punches her and breaks her nose.

Nick also attends one of Gatsby's extravagant Saturday night parties. He runs into Jordan there, and meets Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby privately tells Jordan a story she describes as the most "amazing thing." After going to lunch with Gatsby and a shady business partner of Gatsby's named Meyer Wolfsheim, Nick meets with Jordan and learns the "amazing" story: Gatsby met and fell in love with Daisy before World War I, and bought his West Egg mansion just to be near her and impress her. At Gatsby's request, Nick arranges a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. The two soon rediscover their love.

Daisy invites Nick and Gatsby to lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. During the lunch, Tom realizes Daisy and Gatsby are having an affair. He insists they all go to New York City. As soon as they gather at the Plaza Hotel, though, Tom and Gatsby get into an argument about Daisy. Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy never loved Tom and has only ever loved him. But Daisy can only admit that she loved them both, and Gatsby is stunned. Tom then reveals that Gatsby made his fortune by bootlegging alcohol and other illegal means. Tom then dismissively tells Daisy to go home with Gatsby, since he knows Gatsby won't "bother" her anymore. They leave in Gatsby's car, while Tom, Nick, and Jordan follow sometime later.

As they drive home, Tom, Nick, and Jordan come upon an accident: Myrtle has been hit and killed by a car. Tom realizes that it must have been Gatsby's car that struck Myrtle, and he curses Gatsby as a coward for driving off. But Nick learns from Gatsby later that night that Daisy was actually behind the wheel.

George Wilson, distraught, is convinced that the driver of the car yellow car that hit Myrtle is also her lover. While at work that day, Nick fights on the phone with Jordan. In the afternoon, Nick has a kind of premonition and finds Gatsby shot to death in his pool. Wilson's dead body is a few yards away. Nick organizes a funeral, but none of the people who were supposedly Gatsby's friends come. Only Gatsby's father and one other man attend.

Nick and Jordan end their relationship. Nick runs into Tom soon after, and learns that Tom told Wilson that Gatsby had run over Myrtle. Nick doesn't tell Tom that Daisy was at the wheel. Disgusted with the corrupt emptiness of life on the East Coast, Nick moves back to Minnesota. But the night before he leaves he walks down to Gatsby's beach and looks out over Long Island Sound. He thinks about Gatsby, and compares him to the first settlers to America. Like Gatsby, Nick says, all people must move forward with their arms outstretched toward the future, like boats traveling upstream against the current of the past.

The Mill on the Floss By George Eliot

Source:http://www.gradesaver.com/the-mill-on-the-floss/study-guide/summary

The Mill on the Floss opens with the unnamed narrator dreaming of Dorlcote Mill as she or he knew it years ago. At that time, Mr. Tulliver, owner of the mill and its farm, has decided to send his son, Tom, away to school so that he can become something more than a miller and farmer. When Tom gets home for the summer, he learns that his younger sister Maggie forgot to feed his rabbits and they have all died, so he is furious with her. Maggie is a very bright girl with good intentions and a strong desire to please her brother, so this devastates her. As will happen frequently throughout their lives, Tom coldly holds her carelessness against her for a little while before forgiving her.

Tom's schooling at Mr. Stelling’s begins. Tom finds the lessons largely unpleasant, as he is the only pupil and it is the kind of learning that he finds the most difficult. After the Christmas holiday, though, Philip Wakem joins him at King's Lorton to learn from Mr. Stelling. Philip is the son of Mr. Wakem, a lawyer whom Mr. Tulliver detests, so Tom is prepared to dislike him. Tom is also disturbed by Philip’s physical deformity. Philip is overly sensitive but an apt pupil, so he also has a problem with the brutish miller's son. The two reach a wary peace, however, especially when Maggie comes to visit, as Philip is greatly impressed with her intelligence and kind nature.

Two years later, Maggie goes away to school with her cousin Lucy, but is called home when Mr. Tulliver has lost his lawsuit against Mr. Pivart, a neighboring farmer represented by Mr. Wakem. The loss of the suit combined with his legal fees means he will lose the mill and be completely bankrupt. Right before Maggie’s return, he learns that the mortgage on the farm has fallen into Mr. Wakem’s hands, and this news on top of everything else causes him to lose his senses. Maggie goes to Mr. Stelling’s to deliver the news to Tom, who comes home with her.

There they find that Mr. Tulliver recognizes only Maggie, and a bailiff has come to sell off all of their household goods and furniture, which Mr. Tulliver had used as a security against one of his loans. Mrs. Tulliver turns to her sisters - Mrs. Pullet, Deane and Glegg - for help, but they are more interested in making their moral superiority known, and they only buy the goods that they would want anyway. Tom goes to his uncle Deane for advice on starting out in business so that he can help his family. Mr. Deane is somewhat discouraging, but he eventually finds Tom a starting position at Guest & Co., Mr. Deane's employer, and sets him up with lessons in bookkeeping.

Mrs. Tulliver goes to see Mr. Wakem to try to discourage him from buying the mill when it comes up at auction, but she inadvertently convinces him to do just that. Mr. Tulliver has been slowly improving, and when they tell him that Mr. Wakem now owns the mill and is willing to keep him on as manager, he agrees to do so even though he despises the idea of working under Mr. Wakem, since he believes he owes it to his wife, and he doesn’t want to make his family have to move.

Mr. Tulliver’s only focus now is on saving enough money to repay all of his remaining outstanding debts. Tom and Mrs. Tulliver agree this is the honorable thing to do, so Tom gives all of his earnings from his new job to this cause, and Mrs. Tulliver does everything she can to economize. Bob Jakin gives Maggie a pile of books as a gift, among which is a spiritual treatise which recommends self-renunciation as the path to peace. Maggie becomes convinced this is the only way she will be happy, but she goes at it with an egotistical zeal which is against the true nature of the renunciation.

Bob Jakin offers Tom (now 19) an investment opportunity that he takes with the help of Mr. and Mrs. Glegg, and he manages to quickly multiply his savings. Meanwhile, Philip Wakem meets Maggie on one of her walks, and pleads with her to meet with him regularly, secretly. She eventually agrees, and they do so for almost a year. Philip finally tells Maggie that he is in love with her, and she tells him that she can’t imagine loving anyone more than she does him, but she could never marry him and risk hurting her father and brother so deeply.

Tom figures out that Maggie has been meeting Philip and tells her that if she ever sees or communicates with Philip again without Tom’s permission, he will tell their father all about it, which will probably cause him to lose his sanity again. She accepts his terms, and Tom follows her to her next meeting with Philip. Tom is very cruel to him, and Maggie tells Philip she must end their friendship.

Tom manages to earn enough money with his investments to pay back all of Mr. Tulliver’s debt. Mr. Tulliver is joyous, and decides to quit working for Mr. Wakem, but when he runs into him and tells him this, his anger gets the best of him and he ends up attacking Mr. Wakem with a horsewhip. This brings on a stroke of some sort for Mr. Tulliver, and he dies soon after, telling Tom that he should work to buy the mill back, and he should never forgive the Wakems.

Two years later, Maggie returns to St. Ogg’s to stay with her cousin Lucy Deane after having worked at a school since her father’s death. When Maggie learns of Lucy's friendship with Philip Wakem, she tells Lucy about her prior, forbidden relationship with him; Lucy begins to scheme ways to get the pair together. Maggie meets Stephen Guest, who has been courting Lucy, and immediately is very attracted to him, and he to her. Though they both try to ignore their feelings, eventually they are overwhelmed by them, and so Maggie goes to visit her aunt Moss to get away for a little. Stephen comes to her there and tells her that he loves her and that they have to be together. Though Maggie is tempted, she insists that she could never be happy with him because of the guilt she would feel about Lucy and Philip.

When Maggie returns to St. Ogg’s, Lucy, trying to solidify the relationship between Maggie and Philip, arranges for them to be alone on a boat ride. Philip, though, is depressed because he has realized Maggie and Stephen have feelings for one another, so he arranges to have Stephen take his place, unintentionally leading to Stephen and Maggie being alone in the boat together. Stephen convinces Maggie to elope with him, so they leave the rowboat for a steamship to York. The next morning, however, when they dock, Maggie realizes she can’t allow herself to get her happiness out of Philip and Lucy’s hurt, so she tells Stephen she can’t marry him after all, and heads back to St. Ogg’s.

When Maggie returns to St. Ogg’s five days later, everyone believes the worst of her, including Tom, who refuses to offer her a home with him. Mrs. Tulliver supports her, though, and together they lodge at childhood friend Bob Jakin’s. A letter comes from Stephen to his father, absolving Maggie of guilt, but the damage to her reputation has been done. The town’s clergyman, Dr. Kenn, tries to help her and even gives her a job as governess to his children, but when rumors start to swirl about the two of them, he tells her it would be best if she moved to another town altogether.

Lucy, who has been unwell since the shock of Maggie and Stephen running off together, sneaks out one night to visit Maggie and tells her that once she is well again, she will come see her often. Maggie gets two letters, one from Philip telling her he doesn’t blame her and wishes her to feel no guilt for his sake, and one from Stephen pleading with her to marry him. She resolves to turn him down for good.

She realizes the house is flooding and, after waking Bob and his family, gets into a boat to get to Dorlcote Mill. Mrs. Tulliver is safely out of town, but Tom is there and gets into the boat with her. They have a moment of unspoken resolution, but a large piece of debris comes right into their path and drowns them. Everyone else survives the flood and the siblings are buried next to one another.

AS YOU LIKE IT

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

source:https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/as-you-like-it/play-summary

Orlando, the youngest son of the now deceased Sir Roland de Boys, complains to Adam, the old family retainer, that his eldest brother, Oliver, has kept his Inheritance from him — that is, Oliver has neglected training Orlando to be a proper gentleman. Oliver arrives on the scene, and a bitter quarrel takes place. Adam parts the fighting brothers, and Oliver coldly promises to give Orlando his due. Learning that Orlando intends to challenge Duke Frederick's champion wrestler, a brute of a man called Charles, Oliver makes plans to have his brother killed in the ring. He convinces the slow-witted Charles that Orlando is plotting against him and that Orlando should be killed.

At the match the next day, Duke Frederick, his daughter Celia, and his niece, Rosalind, watch Charles and Orlando wrestle. Charles has seriously injured his first three opponents, but in the match with Orlando, the young man's great speed and agility defeat the duke's champion. At first, Frederick is very cordial to Orlando, but when he learns the youth's identity, he becomes furious and leaves. The reason for the duke’s leaving is that Orlando's dead father, Sir Roland de Boys, had at one time been Frederick's bitter enemy.

After Frederick stalks out, Celia and Rosalind congratulate Orlando, and Rosalind makes it clear that she finds him most attractive. Orlando returns her feelings, but he is so tongue-tied with embarrassment that he can say nothing.

At the ducal palace, we discover that Celia and her cousin Rosalind are as close as sisters; Rosalind is the daughter of the rightful duke, Duke Senior, whose throne has been usurped by his brother, Frederick. Frederick has banished Duke Senior, along with a band of his faithful followers, to the Forest of Arden to live the life of simple foresters. Until now, it is only the strong bond between Rosalind and Celia that prevents Duke Frederick from sending Rosalind away to share her father's exile. But suddenly, Frederick storms into the palace, accuses Rosalind of plotting against him, and, despite Celia's pleas for her cousin, banishes Rosalind. After her father leaves, Celia decides to go into exile with her cousin, and the girls set out for the Forest of Arden — Rosalind disguised as a young man, "Ganymede," and Celia disguised as a young country lass, "Aliena." Touchstone, Frederick's jester, accompanies them.

Meanwhile, Orlando returns home and is warned by the faithful Adam that Oliver is plotting to kill him. Together, they too decide to set out for the Forest of Arden, hoping that they will find safety there.

When his daughter Celia is missed, Frederick sends his men out to find Orlando. When he is informed of Orlando's flight to the Forest of Arden, Frederick assumes that Orlando is responsible for Celia's disappearance, and in a rage he sends for Oliver and commands him to find Orlando or else forfeit his entire estate to Frederick.

In the forest, Orlando and Adam join Rosalind's exiled father and his men, while Rosalind and Celia, still in disguise, purchase a little cottage and a small herd of sheep and settle down to a peaceful, pastoral existence. One day, however, Rosalind finds that the trees in the forest are all covered with sheets of poetry, dedicated to her. The author of these poems, of course, is Orlando. So, still pretending to be the young man Ganymede, Rosalind meets Orlando, who is in the throes of love-sickness for having apparently lost Rosalind. Ganymede offers to cure Orlando of his love-sickness by pretending to be his lady-love, Rosalind. Orlando, she says, should woo Ganymede as though "he" were Rosalind. In turn, Ganymede will do "his best" to act as moody and capricious as a girl might just do and, eventually, Orlando will weary of all the coy teasing and forget all about love — and Rosalind. Orlando agrees to try the plan.

Rosalind, meanwhile, continues to assume the guise of Ganymede and becomes accidentally involved in yet another complication: Silvius, a young shepherd, falls in love with Phebe, a hard-hearted shepherdess, but Phebe rejects Silvius' attentions and falls in love with the young, good-looking Ganymede.

In the midst of all this confusion, Oliver arrives in the Forest of Arden. He tells Ganymede of a near escape he has just had with death. His brother, Orlando, he says, saved him from being poisoned by a deadly snake as he slept, and later, Orlando killed a lioness that was ready to pounce on Oliver. Oliver then tells Ganymede that he has been sent to this part of the forest to seek out a young man known as Ganymede and tell him that Orlando cannot keep his appointment with him. And there is more news: while saving Oliver's life, Orlando was wounded. Hearing this, Ganymede swoons.

Later, in another part of the forest, Oliver and Celia meet and fall in love at first sight, and the jester, Touchstone, falls in love with a homely, simple-minded young woman named Audrey, who tends a herd of goats. Touchstone chases off Audrey's suitor, a lout named William, and although he realizes that he will never instill in Audrey any understanding of, or love for, such things as poetry, he still feels that he must have her.

Duke Frederick, meanwhile, is alarmed by the daily exodus of so many of the best men of his court to the alliance that is growing in the Forest of Arden; he therefore decides to journey to the forest himself and put a stop to all this business. At the forest's edge, however, he meets an old religious hermit and is miraculously converted.

At this point, Rosalind, still disguised as Ganymede, promises to solve the problems of everyone by magic. Shedding her male attire in private, she suddenly appears as herself, and the play comes to a swift close as she and Orlando, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audrey are married. Rosalind's father, the rightful duke, is joyous at finding his daughter again and is returned to his ducal status. Frederick's conversion is so complete that he renounces the world. At the end of the play, Rosalind comes forward and addresses the audience in a short but charming epilogue. In particular, she talks to all the lovers in the audience and wishes them well.