| LIST C (continued) Far from the madding crowd Bathsheba Everdene is young, proud, and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses – if she chooses. In fact she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man’s world. But it is never wise to ignore the power of love. There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba. When she falls in love with one of them, she soon wishes that she had kept her independence. She learns that love brings misery, pain and violent passions that can destroy lives. Sense and sensibility Sometimes the Dashwood girls do not seem like sisters. Elinor is all calmness and reason, and can be relied upon for practical, common sense opinions. Marianne, on the other hand, is all sensibility, full of passionate and romantic feeling. She has no time for dull common sense – or for middle-aged men of thirty-five, long past the age of marriage. True love can only be felt by the young, of course. And if your heart is broken at the age of seventeen, how can you ever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fills your life, waking and sleeping ? The silver sword Jan opened his wooden box and took out the silver sword. “This will bring me luck,” he said to Mr Balicki. “And it will bring you luck because you gave it to me.” The silver sword is only a paper knife, but it gives Jan and his friends hope. Hungry, cold and afraid, the four children try to stay alive among the ruins of bombed cities in war-torn Europe. Soon they will begin the long and dangerous journey south, from Poland to Switzerland, where they hope to find their parents again. |
| I, robot – short stories A human being is a soft, weak creature. It needs constant supplies of air, water, and food ; it has to spend a third of its life asleep, and it can’t work if the temperature is too hot or too cold. But a robot is made of strong metal. It uses electrical energy directly, never sleeps, and can work in any temperature. It is stronger, more efficient – and sometimes more human than human beings. Isaac Asimov was one of the greatest science fiction writers, and these short stories give us an unforgettable and terrifying vision of the future. King’s ransom “Calling all cars, calling all cars. Here’s the story on the Smoke Rise kidnapping. The missing boy is eight years old, fair hair, wearing a red sweater. His name is Jeffry Reynolds, son of Charles Reynolds, chauffeur to Douglas King. The police at the 87th Precinct hate kidnapper. And these kidnappers are stupid, too. They took the wrong boy – the chauffeur’s son instead of the son of the rich tycoon, Douglas King. And they want a ransom of $500,000. A lot of money. But it’s not too much to pay for a little boy’s life … is it ? The unquiet grave – short stories If you find a locked room in a lonely inn, don’t try to open it, even on a bright sunny day. If you find a strange whistle hidden among the stones of an old church, don’t blow it. If a mysterious man gives you a piece of paper with strange writing on it, give it back to him at once. And if you call a dead man from his grave, don’t expect to sleep peacefully ever again. Read these five ghost stories by daylight, and make sure your door is locked. |
| The dead of Jericho Chief Inspector Morse is drinking a pint of beer. He is thinking about an attractive woman who lives not far away. The woman he is thinking of is hanging, dead, from the ceiling of her kitchen. On the floor lies a chair, almost two metres away from the woman’s feet. Chief Inspector Morse finishes his pint, and orders another. Perhaps he will visit Anne, after all. But he is in no particular hurry. Meanwhile, Anne is still hanging in her kitchen, waiting for the police to come and cut her down. She is in no hurry, either. The scarlet letter Scarlet is the colour of sin, and the letter ‘A’ stands for ‘Adultery’. In the 1600s, in Boston, Massachusetts, love was allowed only between a husband and a wife. A child born outside marrriage was a child of sin. Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life. How can she ever escape from this public shame ? What will happen to her child, growing up in the shadow of the scarlet letter ? The future holds no joy for Hester Prynne. And what will happen to her sinful lover – the father of her child ? |