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The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is also a plot device in the seventh novel of the Harry Potter series, Deathly Hallows, in which it is bequeathed to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore. The book is described as a popular collection of Wizarding children's fairy tales, thus while Ron Weasley is familiar with the stories, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had not previously heard them due to their non-magical upbringing. The edition Hermione received in chapter seven in Dumbledore's will is a copy of the original edition of fictional books in the novel. It is described as an ancient-looking small book with its binding "stained and peeling in places". In the novel it is also said the book has a title on its cover, written in embossed runic symbols. The book acts as the vehicle for introducing the Deathly Hallows. Above the story The Tale of the Three Brothers, Hermione Granger finds a strange symbol which later is revealed by Xenophilius Lovegood to be the symbol of the Hallows. The triangle from the symbol represents the Invisibility Cloak, the circle inside the triangle symbolizes the Resurrection Stone, and the vertical line represents the Elder Wand. -
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Inspired by the long-standing affair between Frieda, Lawrence’s German wife, and an Italian peasant who eventually became her third husband, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is the story of Constance Chatterley, who, while trapped in an unhappy marriage to an aristocratic mine owner whose war wounds have left him paralyzed and impotent, has an affair with Mellors, the gamekeeper. Frank Kermode calls the book Lawrence’s "great achievement" and Anaïs Nin describes it as "artistically . . . his best novel." This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes the transcript of the judge's decision in the famous 1959 obscenity trial that allowed the novel to be published in the United States. -
The Road
The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and almost all life on Earth. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their unspecified original location, the father leads the boy south, through a desolate American landscape along a vacant highway, towards the sea, sustained only by the vague hope of finding warmth and more "good guys" like them, and carrying with them only what is on their backs and what will fit into a damaged supermarket cart. The setting is very cold, dark and filled with ash and the land is devoid of living vegetation. There is frequent rain or snow, and electrical storms are common. Many of the remaining human survivors are cannibalistic gangs or nomads, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for human flesh, though that too is almost entirely depleted. Overwhelmed by this desperate and apparently hopeless situation, the boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the cataclysm, commits suicide when the boy is about five or six; the rationality and calmness of her act being her last "great gift" to the man and the boy. The father coughs blood every morning and eventually realizes he is dying, yet still struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation. The revolver they carry, meant for protection or suicide if necessary, has only one round for the entire story. The boy has been told to use it on himself if capture is imminent, to spare himself the horror of death at the hands of the cannibals. In the face of these obstacles, the man and the boy have only each other. They repeatedly assure one another that they are "the good guys," who are "carrying the fire." On their journey, the duo scrounge for food, encounter roving bands of cannibals, and contend with horrors such as a newborn infant being roasted on a spit, and people being kept captive as they are slowly harvested for food. The vast majority of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy." Although the man and the boy eventually reach the sea, neither the climate nor availability of food has improved. The man succumbs to an illness and dies, leaving the boy alone, though not long before he dies, the father tells the boy that he can continue to speak with him in his imagination after he is gone. The boy holds wake over his father's corpse for three days, with no idea of what he is to do next. On the third day, the grieving boy encounters a man who has been tracking the father and son. This man, who has a woman and two children of his own, a boy and a girl, invites him to join his family after convincing the boy that he is indeed one of the "good guys" like the boy and his dead father. A brief epilogue following meditates on nature and infinity in this altered environment. -
道林·格雷的画像
《道林·格雷的画像》是王尔德的惟一一部小说,也是他美学思想的全面体现,因此已被认为是唯美主义小说中的力作。故事围绕着年轻而又漂亮惊人的道林·格雷展开。俊美的格雷立即激起国家霍华德的艺术想像力并成了画家最喜欢的模特,霍华德为他画的巨幅肖像使格雷意识到自己异常的美。新结识的朋友亨利·华顿勋爵对青春、美丽的赞扬又使他意识到青春易逝,美貌难恒,于是他表示愿用灵魂作交换以保持自己的青春俊美,而让肖像代他承受岁月的痕迹。他的愿望真的奇迹般地实现了,在亨利勋爵的不断影响下,格雷成了新享乐主义的实践者。他爱上了年轻的女演员西北比尔·苇恩,结果他的粗暴导致了西比尔的自杀,对此他不仅不自责,反而把这一悲剧件事件当成浪漫故事。从此追求享乐成了他生活的惟一目标,许多接近他的人也都因为他堕落、放荡的生活方式而变得或声名狼藉或身败名裂。后来他竟然丧心病狂地杀死霍华德并毁尸灭迹。就这样他一直过着双重生活,虽然20年过去了,但他看起来仍然是那个俊美、纯洁的20岁青年,尽管他干尽了腐朽堕落的勾当。最后当他想用刀破坏掉他罪恶的惟一证据——肖像时,刀子却插进了自己的胸膛,而肖像又回复到了它当实初的完美状态。 -
Life After Life
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best. -
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.[1] It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children.[2] It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre,[2][3] and its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential[3] in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.@Wikipedia