When Bostonian John Quincy Winterslip is sent to Hawaii to retrieve his elderly Aunt Minerva, who has stayed with relatives in Hawaii long past the time she (and they) had originally intended, he fully expects to return home quickly. Though his family tree has long had “wanderers,” one of whom has settled in Hawaii, John Quincy knows HE is far too sensible to succumb to Hawaii’s charms. His Boston Brahmin roots, his successful investment business, and his “appropriate,” family-approved fiancee are all luring him back home. Shortly after his arrival in Honolulu, however, his uncle Dan Winterslip, with whom he is staying, is murdered in his Waikiki home. Assigned to investigate this murder is Honolulu Detective Charlie Chan. First published in 1925, the House Without a Key broke new ground in American publishing by starring an Asian detective.
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From the outset, Wilkie Collins’s 1868 “sensation novel” keeps the reader entertained and engaged as a priceless yellow diamond, stolen from a Hindu religious statue of the Moon God in India in 1799, works its black magic and controls the action. Rachel Verinder, heir of Colonel John Herncastle, who murdered to obtain the jewel during the battle of Seringapatam, inherits this possibly cursed treasure on her eighteenth birthday in 1848, only to have it vanish before she can put it into the bank. Overall, the novel is surprisingly modern in its ability to appeal to a wide audience. Collins is adept at manipulating his readership and in keeping suspense high. His characters are often engaging and frequently humorous, and in its ability to deal with social issues of the day, the novel provides pertinent commentary about colonialism, religious fanaticism, and class issues. Collins never forgets, however, that he is writing to entertain, and in this he succeeds admirably.
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“Make ’em laugh, make ’em weep, make ’em wait, and make ’em come back.” This advice for writing serial romances, alternately attributed to Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Charles Reade, is epitomized in this 1860 novel by Collins, a story of thwarted love, a marriage of obligation, claims on inheritance, the victimization of women, and, most of all, engaging mystery. Collins, often credited as the father of the mystery genre, creates a fast-paced story of Victorian England, revealing much about Victorian society and its values–the role of women, the laws governing marriage and inheritance, the social institutions of the day, the contrasting attitudes toward the aristocracy and the lower classes, and even the level of medical care and the treatment of psychological illness. The almost-forgotten author of twenty-five novels, Collins was one of the most successful authors of Victorian mysteries, and he is gaining new attention as a result of reprints of this novel and The Moonstone.
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Often regarded as Conrad’s masterwork, Nostromo is also Conrad’s darkest novel, filled with betrayals at all levels and offering little hope for man’s redemption. A novel of huge scope and political intrigue, it is also a novel in which no character actually wins. All must accept the ironies which fate has dealt them. Setting the novel in the imaginary South American country of Costaguana, the story centers around a silver mine in the mountains outside of the capital, Sulaco, vividly depicting its allure and the price each character pays for its success. Rich in atmosphere, vibrant in description, filled with characters representing all walks of life and philosophy, and set in a country where revolution is a way of life, the novel is full of dark portents and bleak political outcomes.
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Posted in Classic Novel, England, Historical on Jan 13th, 2011
Written in 1853, when Dickens was at his peak, Bleak House is often considered Dickens’s best novel. Set in the 1850s, the novel tells several interconnected stories involving dozens of characters from all levels of society, giving a broad picture of life in London and in the countryside during this period. Esther Summerson, the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon, an early lover, is raised in secrecy by a resentful aunt. After the aunt’s death, Esther joins the household of the kindly Mr. Jarndyce, who is also mentoring Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, Ada’s cousin. Richard, Ada, and Mr. Jarndyce have been involved for years in a lawsuit, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, about the terms of an old will, and this lawsuit, which has continued interminably in the High Court of Chancery, is the inspiration for the satire Dickens directs toward British bureaucracy and the paperwork which paralyzes it. As the lives of Esther, Lady Dedlock, Ada, Richard, and Mr. Jarndyce unfold, the reader also learns about the lives of those who come into peripheral contact with them.
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