The Red and the Black

• Characters– Julien Sorel, Mme. de Rênal, Mathilde de la Mole, Napoleon, M. de Rênal,

Marquis de la Mole, M. Chélan, M. Pirard, M. Valenod, Mme. de Fervaques, Elisa, Fouqué

• Plot Summary– The son of a carpenter, Julian Sorel is inspired by the writings of Napoleon to

conquer the heights of society. His initial plan to work his way up through the church is, however, thwarted when he is forced to accept employment as a tutor--and this rash social entrepreneur certainly has not considered the dangers of falling in love. Stendhal's novel is an amusing and piquant study of hypocrisy and free will in post-Napoleonic France.

• Author– Catherine Slater Stendhal

The Sun also Rises

• Characters– Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, Mike

Campbell, Pedro Romero, Montoya, Frances Clyne, Count Mippipopolous, Wilson-Harris, Georgette, Belmonte, Harvey Stone

• Plot Summary– In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway chronicles the aimless,

hedonistic exploits of a group of literary ex-patriates (known as "The Lost Generation") living in post-World War I Paris and Spain. Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley are attracted to each other, but Jake's war wound prevents a deeper relationship. Cohn loves Brett, who has affairs with a variety of men

• Author– Ernest Hemingway

Lolita

• Characters– Humbert Humbert, Dolores (Lolita) Haze, Clare Quilty, Charlotte Haze,

Annabel Leigh, Valeria, Jean Farlow, John Farlow, Dick Schiller, Rita, Mona, Gaston Grodin, Mrs. Pratt, Ivor Quilty, Monique, John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., Shirley Holmes, Barbara, Vivian Darkbloom, John (Jack) Windmuller, Frederick Beale, Jr.

• Plot Summary– the protagonist and unreliable narrator, middle-aged Humbert Humbert,

who becomes obsessed and sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze.

• Author– Vladimir Nabokov

Tractatus logico philosophicus

• Character– T here are no characters

• Plot Summary– Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme brilliance, it

captured the imagination of a generation of philosophers. For Wittgenstein, logic was something we use to conquer a reality which is in itself both elusive and unobtainable. He famously summarized the book in the following words: 'What can be said at all can be said clearly; and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.'

• Author– Ludwig Wittgenstein