Seeing how this is an AP Literature class you will be expected to read some books. It is extremely important to keep up with the scheduled class readings. Expect a test or quiz on what you were supposed to read every time that you enter the class. Also, try to actually read the books in depth. Don't rely only on summaries you find on the internet as many of Mr. Bah's tests ask very specific questions. That being said, here are the books you will read along with their summaries.
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome struggles to make a living as a farmer near the bleak Massachusetts town of Starkfield, while his dour wife Zeena whines and complains about her imaginary ailments. When Zeena's destitute cousin, Mattie Silver, a sweet and cheerful young woman, comes to live with the couple, the growing friendship between Ethan and Mattie arouses Zeena's jealousy, and she evicts Mattie from the house. As they are about to part, Ethan and Mattie take a sled ride down the big hill near town. In despair now and aware of their love for each other, they decide to end their lives by crashing the sled. Instead they are both left crippled for life. At the end of the story, the original roles have changed. Ethan is deformed, hopeless, and poorer than ever, and Mattie is now the helpless invalid. Caring for them both—presiding over their wrecked lives—is Zeena.
(http://www.classzone.com/novelguides/litcons/ethanf/guide.cfm)
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre, an orphan, lives with her abusive aunt, Sarah Reed, and her mean-spirited cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana, at Gateshead Hall.She is sent away to the Lowood School where the conditions are very harsh. Jane befriends a fellow student, Helen Burns, and Miss Temple, a teacher. When Helen Burns dies, and Miss Temple marries, Jane decides to leave Lowood, and secures a job as a governess at Thornfield. At Thornfield, Jane’s duties are to teach the master’s foster child Adele Varens. Although he has a brusque manner, Jane finds the master, Edward Fairfax Rochester, attractive and fascinating. One night Jane is awakened by strange noises. Seeing smoke coming from Mr. Rochester’s room, she runs in and throws water on the fire, awakening him. He leads Jane to believe that it is Grace Poole, a servant, who caused the damage. Meanwhile, Mr. Rochester apparently pursues Blanche Ingram, a local beauty, while Jane’s love for him continues to grow. Jane leaves Thornfield to visit the dying Mrs. Reed, who tells her that John Eyre, her father’s brother, is trying to contact her. When Jane returns to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester switches his affections from Blanche to Jane, and proposes marriage. The wedding ceremony is interrupted by Mr. Briggs, who claims that Mr. Rochester is already married. The mad Bertha Rochester, who is locked away on the third floor of Thornfield, is exposed to Jane. Jane flees, and arrives at Moor House where she is taken in by St. John Rivers, a minister. Jane receives an inheritance from her uncle, John Eyre. St. John Rivers proposes marriage to Jane, but she declines since she still has Mr. Rochester on her mind. Jane returns to Thornfield and discovers it has burned to the ground. It seems that Bertha Rochester set the fire and died in it, while Mr. Rochester suffered a mangled hand that had to be amputated and has been left blind. Jane reunites with Mr. Rochester at Ferndean, his current home, and they marry. Ten years pass, and Jane tells us how contented she is with married life, Mr. Rochester has regained partial vision in one eye, and they have a newborn son. As an orphan, Jane’s status is the lowest in the social class system. Because of her status (of which she is constantly reminded as a child) she strives to better herself through education and employment. During her struggles, Jane observes the other classes, including the religious zealots, with great insight and comes to recognize the many hypocrisies of the characters. Emotionally, Jane is a lonely and ostracized child who recognizes her need for love and actively searches for it throughout her life, eventually finding her home with Mr. Rochester. Her search not only teaches her the true essence of love, but also enables her to raise her social position through hard work and the financial inheritance she receives.
(http://www.enotes.com/topics/jane-eyre)
Jane Eyre, an orphan, lives with her abusive aunt, Sarah Reed, and her mean-spirited cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana, at Gateshead Hall.She is sent away to the Lowood School where the conditions are very harsh. Jane befriends a fellow student, Helen Burns, and Miss Temple, a teacher. When Helen Burns dies, and Miss Temple marries, Jane decides to leave Lowood, and secures a job as a governess at Thornfield. At Thornfield, Jane’s duties are to teach the master’s foster child Adele Varens. Although he has a brusque manner, Jane finds the master, Edward Fairfax Rochester, attractive and fascinating. One night Jane is awakened by strange noises. Seeing smoke coming from Mr. Rochester’s room, she runs in and throws water on the fire, awakening him. He leads Jane to believe that it is Grace Poole, a servant, who caused the damage. Meanwhile, Mr. Rochester apparently pursues Blanche Ingram, a local beauty, while Jane’s love for him continues to grow. Jane leaves Thornfield to visit the dying Mrs. Reed, who tells her that John Eyre, her father’s brother, is trying to contact her. When Jane returns to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester switches his affections from Blanche to Jane, and proposes marriage. The wedding ceremony is interrupted by Mr. Briggs, who claims that Mr. Rochester is already married. The mad Bertha Rochester, who is locked away on the third floor of Thornfield, is exposed to Jane. Jane flees, and arrives at Moor House where she is taken in by St. John Rivers, a minister. Jane receives an inheritance from her uncle, John Eyre. St. John Rivers proposes marriage to Jane, but she declines since she still has Mr. Rochester on her mind. Jane returns to Thornfield and discovers it has burned to the ground. It seems that Bertha Rochester set the fire and died in it, while Mr. Rochester suffered a mangled hand that had to be amputated and has been left blind. Jane reunites with Mr. Rochester at Ferndean, his current home, and they marry. Ten years pass, and Jane tells us how contented she is with married life, Mr. Rochester has regained partial vision in one eye, and they have a newborn son. As an orphan, Jane’s status is the lowest in the social class system. Because of her status (of which she is constantly reminded as a child) she strives to better herself through education and employment. During her struggles, Jane observes the other classes, including the religious zealots, with great insight and comes to recognize the many hypocrisies of the characters. Emotionally, Jane is a lonely and ostracized child who recognizes her need for love and actively searches for it throughout her life, eventually finding her home with Mr. Rochester. Her search not only teaches her the true essence of love, but also enables her to raise her social position through hard work and the financial inheritance she receives.
(http://www.enotes.com/topics/jane-eyre)
The Secret Sharer
"The Secret Sharer" begins with the anonymous narrator — the recently appointed captain of an unnamed ship — anchored in the Gulf of Siam (what is now called the Gulf of Thailand). As the Captain stands on the deck, alone, he soaks in the sunset and silence of the sea. He feels like a stranger to his new command, the ship, and his crew. At supper that night, the Captain remarks that he saw the masts of a ship that must be anchored inside a nearby group of islands. The Second Mate tells him that the ship is the Sephora, from Liverpool, carrying a cargo of coal. As a goodwill gesture toward the crew, who have been working hard the last two days, the Captain announces that he will take the anchor watch until 1:00 a.m., something usually not done by a ship's captain. During the anchor watch, while the hands are asleep, the Captain begins to pull in the rope side ladder, which was lowered for a tugboat man to come on board and deliver the crew's mail. When he begins to pull it in, he feels a jerk in the ropes, and surprised, leans over the deck to investigate. He sees a naked man in the water, holding the bottom of the ladder. The man introduces himself as Leggatt, and the Captain fetches him some clothes (one of his sleeping suits). Leggatt explains that he was the Sephora's chief mate and that he accidentally killed an insolent fellow crewman seven weeks ago. The Captain takes him into his stateroom and further learns that Leggatt was kept under arrest in his cabin until he escaped and swam to the rope ladder where the Captain discovered him. He sank his clothes so the Sephora's crew would think he had committed suicide by drowning. The Captain feels an unexplainable affinity to Leggatt, often referring to him as "my double" or "second self." The Captain tells Leggatt that he has only been in charge for two weeks and feels as much of a stranger on the ship as Leggatt himself. He agrees to hide Leggatt in his stateroom. The Sephora's captain soon arrives in his search for the escaped murderer. He searches the ship, but Leggatt remains hidden, thanks to the maneuverings of the Captain. The Sephora's captain states that he will have to report Leggatt as a suicide when his ship arrives home. The Captain and Leggatt share their relief at not having been caught. As the Captain's ship begins its voyage home, the Captain grows more nervous about the possibility of the crew discovering Leggatt on board. On the fourth day out, the steward almost stumbles upon Leggatt when he delivers the Captain's coat to his stateroom. Leggatt tells the Captain that he must maroon him amongst some islands, because he knows he cannot return to England and face prison or the gallows. The Captain reluctantly agrees. As the ship approaches Koh-ring, an island, the Captain orders the crew to steer the ship close to the shore. They protest that such a move is unsafe, but the Captain is determined to give Leggatt a chance to swim to safety. After stealing away to his stateroom and shaking Leggatt's hand, the Captain continues to have the ship steered close to the shore, despite all the protests of his terrified crew. Leggatt jumps off the deck and swims to safety, the Captain successfully maneuvers the ship out of danger, and wishes Leggatt luck in finding his "new destiny."
(http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/the-secret-sharer/about-the-secret-sharer)
Mrs. Dalloway
London 1923. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party that evening. While the maid is preparing the house, Mrs. Dalloway is going to buy the flowers. On her walk through London she thinks about her youth when she and her friend Sally lived with there parents in Bourton (rural England). There she had a friend Peter Walsh who wanted to marry her. Although she loved him she decided not to marry him but to marry Richard Dalloway. Peter Walsh came back the day before out of India and later that day he calls at her house to talk with her. They still feel a lot for one another. And the rest of that day they both think of the time in Bourton. We also follow Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of the great war (WOI). This war gave him a very traumatic experience which lead him to kill himself. Then the party starts and she doesn't like it until the party seems to turn right after all.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119723/plotsummary)
London 1923. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party that evening. While the maid is preparing the house, Mrs. Dalloway is going to buy the flowers. On her walk through London she thinks about her youth when she and her friend Sally lived with there parents in Bourton (rural England). There she had a friend Peter Walsh who wanted to marry her. Although she loved him she decided not to marry him but to marry Richard Dalloway. Peter Walsh came back the day before out of India and later that day he calls at her house to talk with her. They still feel a lot for one another. And the rest of that day they both think of the time in Bourton. We also follow Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of the great war (WOI). This war gave him a very traumatic experience which lead him to kill himself. Then the party starts and she doesn't like it until the party seems to turn right after all.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119723/plotsummary)
Invisible Man
Invisible Man is a first-person novel. It concerns an unnamed narrator, whom the reader meets in the Prologue. In the Epilogue, the narrator seems to “rejoin” the reader once again.Other than his memories of his grandfather’s death, the narrator reveals nothing about his childhood. After the humiliating battle royal (a chaotic boxing match, along with sundry torments, in which high school boys competed), he goes to college, where he has an experience in betrayal that changes his life. Having inadvertently taken an important visitor to the wrong places, the narrator is left exposed to the harsh judgment of Dr. Bledsoe, the president of the college. The narrator is emotionally scarred by what has happened. Forced to leave the college that he loved, the narrator takes a bus to New York City to find work. There he tries to use letters of recommendation, but to no avail. He eventually takes a job in a paint factory. Another unpleasant lesson ensues there, for the narrator is untrained for the work. He is placed under the thumb of a bitter and distrusting man, who maneuvers the narrator into an industrial accident. The narrator is once again torn loose from his moorings. After the accident, the narrator endured a bizarre experience, in which medical personnel tortured him. Mary, a stranger, finds the narrator in the street, and offers him a home. Soon afterward, a protest of the eviction of an old couple leads the narrator to join a political group called the Brotherhood. The narrator seems to advance in the organization, but the petty politics and machinations of those around him ensure the narrator’s instability. Eventually, the narrator is betrayed by the Brotherhood. Not long after one of the members is killed by a policeman, a riot begins. In the growing confusion, the narrator takes to the underground.
Invisible Man is a first-person novel. It concerns an unnamed narrator, whom the reader meets in the Prologue. In the Epilogue, the narrator seems to “rejoin” the reader once again.Other than his memories of his grandfather’s death, the narrator reveals nothing about his childhood. After the humiliating battle royal (a chaotic boxing match, along with sundry torments, in which high school boys competed), he goes to college, where he has an experience in betrayal that changes his life. Having inadvertently taken an important visitor to the wrong places, the narrator is left exposed to the harsh judgment of Dr. Bledsoe, the president of the college. The narrator is emotionally scarred by what has happened. Forced to leave the college that he loved, the narrator takes a bus to New York City to find work. There he tries to use letters of recommendation, but to no avail. He eventually takes a job in a paint factory. Another unpleasant lesson ensues there, for the narrator is untrained for the work. He is placed under the thumb of a bitter and distrusting man, who maneuvers the narrator into an industrial accident. The narrator is once again torn loose from his moorings. After the accident, the narrator endured a bizarre experience, in which medical personnel tortured him. Mary, a stranger, finds the narrator in the street, and offers him a home. Soon afterward, a protest of the eviction of an old couple leads the narrator to join a political group called the Brotherhood. The narrator seems to advance in the organization, but the petty politics and machinations of those around him ensure the narrator’s instability. Eventually, the narrator is betrayed by the Brotherhood. Not long after one of the members is killed by a policeman, a riot begins. In the growing confusion, the narrator takes to the underground.
Hamlet
Prince Hamlet’s student friend, Horatio, goes to the battlements of Denmark’s Elsinore castle late at night to meet the guards. They tell him about a ghost they have seen that resembles the late king, Hamlet. It reappears and they decide to tell the prince. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, having become king, has now married Hamlet’s widowed mother, Gertrude. In the court, after envoys are sent to Norway, the prince is dissuaded from returning to university. Hamlet still mourns his father’s death and hearing of the ghost from Horatio he determines to see it for himself. Laertes, son of the courtier, Polonius, departs for France, warning his sister, Ophelia, against thinking too much of Hamlet’s attentions. The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. The prince swears vengeance and his friends are sworn to secrecy as Hamlet decides to feign madness while he tests the truth of the ghost’s allegations. He rejects Ophelia, as Claudius and Polonius spy on him seeking to find a reason for his sudden strange behaviour. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, former student friends of Hamlet, are summoned by Claudius and their arrival coincides with that of a group of travelling actors. The prince knows these players well and they rehearse together before arranging to present Hamlet’s choice of play before the king and queen, which will include scenes close to the circumstances of the old king’s death. At the performance Hamlet watches closely as Claudius is provoked into interrupting the play and storming out, resolving to send the prince away to England. Hamlet is summoned by his distressed mother and, on the way he spares Claudius whom he sees kneeling, attempting to pray. To kill him while he is praying would send his soul to heaven rather than to the hell he deserves. Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room to listen to the conversation, but Hamlet detects movement as he upbraids his mother. He stabs the concealing tapestry and so kills the old man. The ghost reappears, warning his son not to delay revenge, nor to upset his mother. As the army of Norway’s King Fortinbras crosses Denmark to attack Poland, Hamlet is sent to England, ostensibly as an ambassador, but he discovers Claudius’s plan to have him killed. Outwitting this plot Hamlet returns alone, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths in his stead. During Hamlet’s absence Ophelia goes mad as a result of her father’s death and she is drowned. Hamlet returns and meets Horatio in the graveyard. With the arrival of Ophelia’s funeral Hamlet confronts Laertes who, after attempting a revolt against Claudius, has taken his father’s place at the court. A duel is arranged between Hamlet and Laertes at which Claudius has plotted for Hamlet to die either on a poisoned rapier, or from poisoned wine. The plans go wrong and both Laertes and Hamlet are wounded, while Gertrude unwittingly drinks from the poisoned cup. Hamlet, in his death throes, kills Claudius, and Horatio is left to explain the truth to the new king, Fortinbras, who returns, victorious, from the Polish wars.
(http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/play-summary/hamlet/)
Prince Hamlet’s student friend, Horatio, goes to the battlements of Denmark’s Elsinore castle late at night to meet the guards. They tell him about a ghost they have seen that resembles the late king, Hamlet. It reappears and they decide to tell the prince. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, having become king, has now married Hamlet’s widowed mother, Gertrude. In the court, after envoys are sent to Norway, the prince is dissuaded from returning to university. Hamlet still mourns his father’s death and hearing of the ghost from Horatio he determines to see it for himself. Laertes, son of the courtier, Polonius, departs for France, warning his sister, Ophelia, against thinking too much of Hamlet’s attentions. The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. The prince swears vengeance and his friends are sworn to secrecy as Hamlet decides to feign madness while he tests the truth of the ghost’s allegations. He rejects Ophelia, as Claudius and Polonius spy on him seeking to find a reason for his sudden strange behaviour. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, former student friends of Hamlet, are summoned by Claudius and their arrival coincides with that of a group of travelling actors. The prince knows these players well and they rehearse together before arranging to present Hamlet’s choice of play before the king and queen, which will include scenes close to the circumstances of the old king’s death. At the performance Hamlet watches closely as Claudius is provoked into interrupting the play and storming out, resolving to send the prince away to England. Hamlet is summoned by his distressed mother and, on the way he spares Claudius whom he sees kneeling, attempting to pray. To kill him while he is praying would send his soul to heaven rather than to the hell he deserves. Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room to listen to the conversation, but Hamlet detects movement as he upbraids his mother. He stabs the concealing tapestry and so kills the old man. The ghost reappears, warning his son not to delay revenge, nor to upset his mother. As the army of Norway’s King Fortinbras crosses Denmark to attack Poland, Hamlet is sent to England, ostensibly as an ambassador, but he discovers Claudius’s plan to have him killed. Outwitting this plot Hamlet returns alone, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths in his stead. During Hamlet’s absence Ophelia goes mad as a result of her father’s death and she is drowned. Hamlet returns and meets Horatio in the graveyard. With the arrival of Ophelia’s funeral Hamlet confronts Laertes who, after attempting a revolt against Claudius, has taken his father’s place at the court. A duel is arranged between Hamlet and Laertes at which Claudius has plotted for Hamlet to die either on a poisoned rapier, or from poisoned wine. The plans go wrong and both Laertes and Hamlet are wounded, while Gertrude unwittingly drinks from the poisoned cup. Hamlet, in his death throes, kills Claudius, and Horatio is left to explain the truth to the new king, Fortinbras, who returns, victorious, from the Polish wars.
(http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/play-summary/hamlet/)