| OXFORD BOOKWORMS LIST C: summaries Do androids dream of electric sheep ? San Francisco lies under a cloud of radioactive dust. People live in half-deserted apartment buidings, and keep electric animals as pets because so many real animals have died. Most people emigrate to Mars- unelss they have a job to do on Earth. Like Rick Deckard – android killer for the police and owner of an electric sheep. This week he has to find, identify, and kill six androids which have escaped from Mars. They’re machines, but they look and sound and think like humans – clever, dangerous humans. They will be hard to kill. The film Blade Runner was based on this famous novel. American crime stories “Curtis Colt didn’t kill that liquor store woman, and that’s a fact. It’s not right that he should have to ride the lightning – that’s what prisoners call dying in the electric chair. Curtis doesn’t belong in it, and I can prove it.” But can Curtis’s girlfriend prove it ? Murder has undoubtedly been done, and if Curtis doesn’t ride the lightning for it, then who will ? These seven short stories, by well-known writers such as Dashiel Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, and Nancy Pickard, will keep you on the edge of your seat. Great expectations In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death’s head ; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip. Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the girl at her side : “Break his heart, Estella. Break his heart !” Ghost stories After dinner we turned the lights out and played ‘hide-and-seek’. In the dark, I touched a hand, a very cold hand. Now, because of the game, I had to hide in the dark with … with this cold person – not speaking, not knowing who it was. Slowly the others found us, hid with us, until we were all there – all thirteen. Thirteen ? But there were only twelve people in the house ! We touched each other in the dark, counting. Thirteen. Quickly, nervously, I lit a match to see … Heat and dust Heat and dust – these simple, terrible words describe the Indian summer. Year after year, endlessly, it is the same. And everyone who experiences this heat and dust is changed forever. We often say, in these modern times, that sexual relationships have changed, for better or for worse. But in this book we see that things have not changed. Whether we look back sixty years, or a hundred and sixty, we see that it is not things that change, but people. And, in the heat and dust of an Indian summer, even people are not very different after all. The garden party and other stories Oh, how delightful it is to fall in love for the first time ! How exciting to go to your first dance when you are a girl of eighteen ! But life can also be hard and cruel, if you are young and inexperienced and travelling alone across Europa … or if you are a child from the wrong social class … or a singer without work and the rent is to be paid. Set in Europe and New Zealand, these nine stories by Katherine Mansfield dig deep beneath the appearances of life to show us the causes of human happiness and despair. This rough magic The Greek island of Corfu lies like a jewel, green and gold in the Ionian sea, where dolphins swim in the sparkling blue water. What better place for an out-of-work actress to relax for a few weeks ? But the island is full of danger and mysteries, and Lucy Waring’s holiday is far from peaceful. She meets a rude young man, who seems to have something to hide. Then there is a death by drowning, and then another … Jeeves and friends What on earth would Bertie Wooster do without Jeeves, his valet ? Jeeves is calm, tactful, resourceful, and has the answer to every problem. Bertie, a pleasant young man but a bit short of brains, turns to Jeeves every time he gets into trouble. And Bertie is always in trouble. These six stories include the most famous of P.G. Wodehouse’s memorable characters. There are three stories about Bertie and Jeeves, and three about Lord Emsworth, who, like Bertie, is often in trouble, battling with his fierce sister Lady Constance, and his even fiercer Scottish gardener, the red-bearded Angus Mcallister … |