Name the British or Irish Novel WIP Flashcards
1962 dystopian satire.set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called “Nadsat”, which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to ‘-teen’ in English. According to the author, it was a jeu d’esprit written in just three weeks.
“A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
1961 novel, the first of the author’s works to achieve worldwide acclaim, that is the story of an Indo-Trinidadian who continually strives for success and mostly fails, who marries into the Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by it, and who finally sets the goal of owning his own house.
“A House for Mr Biswas” by V.S. Naipaul
1924 novel set during the British Raj and the Indian independence movement of the 1920s. During a trip to the fictitious Marabar Caves, Adela Quested thinks she is alone with Dr. Aziz in one of the caves (when in fact he is in an entirely different cave), and subsequently panics and flees; it is assumed that Dr. Aziz has attempted to assault her. Aziz’s trial accentuates the racial tensions and prejudices between the Indians and the British. (The title is taken from one of Whitman’s poems in Leaves of Grass.)
“A Passage to India” by E.M. Forster
A Künstlerroman in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of Stephen Dedalus (an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology). Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown, culminating in his self-exile from Ireland to Europe.
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce
1908 novel about a young woman (Lucy Honeychurch) who travels to Florence with her chaperone and encounters George Emerson and then returns to England and engages herself to Cecil before encountering George again. The story is both a romance and a humorous critique of restrictive Edwardian society. (Merchant Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985.)
“A Room with a View” by E.M. Forster
1887 detective novel that marked the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (and a magnifying glass as an investigative tool). The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest when it first appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual.
“A Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle
1859 historical novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens
1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under a pseudonym. It tells of a young girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures and is noted for its use of mathematical logic.
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
2001 fantasy novel about Shadow, who takes a job as a bodyguard for Mr. Wednesday (Odin) and is drawn into a conflict between the Old Gods and the New Gods . . . which is actually a two-man con orchestrated by Odin and Loki
“American Gods” by Neil Gaiman
1945 allegorical novella that tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell
1939 novel by Irish writer Brian O’Nolan, writing under a pseudonym. A first-person story by an unnamed Irish student of literature telling three intertwined stories. The 1st concerns the Pooka MacPhellimey, “a member of the devil class”. The 2nd is about a young man named John Furriskey, who turns out to be a fictional character created by another of the student’s creations, Dermot Trellis, a cynical writer of Westerns. The 3rd consists of the student’s adaptations of Irish legends, mostly those of Finn Mac Cool and Mad King Sweeney.
“At-Swim-Two-Birds” by Flann O’Brien
2001 novel set in 1935 England, WWII England and France, and present-day England, it follows Briony Tallis, an upper-class girl: her half-innocent mistake, (misidentifying her cousin’s rapist) that ruins the lives of her sister Cecilia and friend Robbie, and her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake.
“Atonement” by Ian McEwan
1857 sequel to “The Warden;” the story primarily of the contest between Mrs. Proudie, the Bishop’s wife, and Mr. Slope, his chaplain, for primacy in the diocese. As an incident in this battle the wardenship of Hiram’s Hospital was in question following Mr. Harding’s resignation.
“Barchester Towers” by Anthony Trollope
1932 novel set in a futuristic World State (“After Ford” 632), inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, Bernard Marx, an Alpha, and his love interest, Lenina Crowne, travel to a “savage reservation,” where they stumble upon Linda and her son John, the lost family of the Director.
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
1945 novel subtitled The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder. It follows his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics (who own the castle of the title), particularly Sebastian and Julia.
“Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh
1952 novel that was the first to feature James Bond, in which he gambles to bankrupt Le Chiffre, a member of a Russian counter-intelligence agency SMERSH.
“Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming
1748 epistolary novel subtitled The History of a Young Lady, in which a virtuous young woman tries to escape the control of her family, the Harlowes, only to put herself under the control of Robert Lovelace, before finally committing suicide.
“Clarissa” by Samuel Richardson
1932 comic novel that parodies the romanticised accounts of rural life popular at the time; metropolitan Flora Post visits her distant relatives, including Aunt Ada Doom and the Starkadders, in Howling, Sussex
“Cold Comfort Farm” by Stella Gibbons
1850 originally serialized novel told in the first person, describing the title character’s life until middle age; includes the characters Uriah Heep and Mr. Micawber
“David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens
1928 social satire based in part on the author’s undergraduate years at Oxford and his experiences as a teacher; Paul Pennyfeather, sent down from Oxford, becomes engaged to a wealthy woman he doesn’t know is involved in human trafficking; he takes the fall for her, fakes his death, and returns to Oxford.
“Decline and Fall” by Evelyn Waugh
1897 Gothic horror novel that tells the story of the title character’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between him and a small group of men and a woman led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker
1815 novel about the spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied Miss Woodhouse who greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray although she gets her happy ending with Mr. Knightley in the end
“Emma” by Jane Austen
1970 children’s novel about how the title character outwits his farmer neighbours Boggis, Bunce, and Bean to steal their food from right under their noses.
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” by Roald Dahl
1874 novel that describes the life and relationships of Bathsheba Everdene with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy.
“Far From the Madding Crowd” by Thomas Hardy
