DescriptionWe all know about the famous generals and the major battles of the Civil War. But for the soldiers who actually fought, the war was all too real. It was especially traumatic for the thousands of soldiers who ranged in age from 10 to 15. Some young soldier…
DescriptionIn mid-life, Charles, a mildly successful, divorced professor at a "leafy little college" who has traded his youthful passions for reduced expectations, attends his 30th college reunion. When he sees a model of the campus as it was in his day, he is drawn back into his memories, where his 22-year-old self carries on a passionate affair with a beautiful dancer named Juliana. Against a backdrop of the 1960s war protests, Charles watches his relationship with Juliana intensify and nearly unravel, mentally traveling from his youthful mistakes to the child they almost had together. As he rediscovers contradictory versions of his past, he relives the hopefulness of youth and examines the nature of memory itself. A physicist and a humanist, Lightman fuses both disciplines into a luminous book.
DescriptionCondemned as immoral when it was first published in 1890, Oscar Wilde's tale of the beautiful young man who "sold himself to the devil for a pretty face" follows the fortunes of Dorian Gray when his prayer for eternal youth as he contemplates his newly finished portrait is answered. Dorian falls under the corrupting influence of Lord Henry Wotton, who urges him to "be always searching for new sensations", and, relieved of any consequences of his actions, knowing that he will remain untainted while the portrait bears the burden of his excesses, he descends into brutality and even murder. Eventually, haunted by his own decadence and determined to redeem himself, Dorian realises that his only hope lies in destroying the portrait.
DescriptionOne of the major literary figures of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf, transformed the art of the novel with Mrs. Dalloway, which has been heralded as her greatest work of fiction. Preoccupied with last minute details of party preparation, Clarissa Dalloway's mind is flooded with blissful memories of her youth and of her past loves. With thoughts turning to the present, she reexamines the solid reasons behind her practical marriage, then on to the future, with hesitant thoughts of growing old.
