Keats Famous Odes

John Keats

Ode to a Nightingale Ode on a Grecian Urn Ode to Autumn Ode to Psyche Ode on Melancholy Ode on Indolence Ode to Maia

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

Published in his sixtieth year, Gulliver's Travels is the most famous example of Jonathan Swift's satirical works and was the only one he received payment for (£200) since most of his works were vehemently and dangerously political, and were publish ed anonymously or under one of his many pen-names. Following the success of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719, Swift was inspired to write a similarly sober document of fiction spoken as truth to make the reader reconsider the accepted state of the world. Although Swift seems to have been writing the book from 1720 onwards, it was only completed and published in 1726. Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, tells the story of his shipwreck on the island of Lilliput. Here people are six inches rather than six feet tall and as such their actions, debates and pageantry seem utterly ridiculous. Their fatuous political arguments (should an egg be broken at the big or small end?) mock the English political and religious debates of Swift's time. On his 'travels', Gulliver meets various other strange humanoids: the extremely tall people of Brobdingnag and later the useless scientists and philosophers of Laputa and Lagado who spend their time trying to extract sunshine from cucumbers while failing to do anything worthwhile. Glubbdubdrib and Luggnagg present Gulliver with more intriguing insights still. In the final section of the book, Gulliver meets the Houyhnhnms who are horses empowered with reason, simplicity and dignity and the Yahoos who look like humans but live revolting lives of vice and brutality. Gulliver and the reader get to see the human race through a series of curved mirrors therefore and return to the real world somewhat disgusted. However, despite its dark themes, the book was an immediate success and has remained a favourite with adults who enjoy the satire and children who like the adventuring (or perhaps it is the other way around). morehide

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Abridged

Jules Verne

"Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a scrap of paper written in old Icelandic. Axel later manages to decipher it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they desend into i t's crater with the help of a guide named Hans Bjelke, in hopes to reach the centre of the earth! They will face starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion, but eccentric Professor Lindenbrock won't give up until he is at the earth's core...or dead! " morehide

Hyperion

Keats

The Titans are a pantheon of gods who ruled previously to the Olympians, and are now destined to fall. They include Saturn (king of the gods), Ops (his wife), Thea (his sister), Enceladus (god of war), Oceanus (god of the sea), Hyperion (the god of t he sun) and Clymene (a young goddess). The poem opens with Saturn bemoaning the loss of his power, which is being overtaken by Jupiter. Thea leads him to a place where the other Titans sit, similarly miserable, and they discuss whether they should fight back against their conquest by the new gods (the Olympians). Oceanus declares that he is willing to surrender his power to Neptune (the new god of the sea) because Neptune is more beautiful (this is worth bearing in mind in relation to the Romantic idea that beauty is paramount). Clymene describes first hearing the music of Apollo, which she found beautiful to the point of pain (another Romantic idea). Finally, Enceladus makes a speech encouraging the Titans to fight. Meanwhile Hyperion's palace is described, and we first see Hyperion himself, the only Titan who is still powerful. He is addressed by Uranus (old god of the sky, father of Saturn), who encourages him to go to where Saturn and the other Titans are. We leave the Titans with the arrival of Hyperion, and the scene changes to Apollo (the new sun god, also god of music, civilisation and culture) weeping on the beach. Here Mnemosyne (goddess of memory) encounters him and he explains to her the cause of his tears: he is aware of his divine potential, but as yet unable to fulfil it. By looking into Mnemosyne's eyes he receives knowledge which transforms him fully into a god. The poem breaks off at this point, in mid-line. morehide

Good Wives

Louisa M. Alcott

This is the second story about the March family. Three years on from "Little Women", the March girls and their friend Laurie are young adults with their futures ahead of them. Although they all face painful trials along the way - from Meg's sad lesso n in housekeeping to Laurie's disappointment in love and a tragedy which touches them all - each of the girls finally finds happiness, if not always in the way they expect. morehide