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Description
The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie’s second novel, introduces Tommy and Tuppence, the two much-loved mystery-solving adventurers.
The novel centers around a mysterious young girl, suffering from amnesia, who was present on the sinking of the Lusitania. As Tommy and Tuppence try to unravel the mystery, they find themselves embroiled with mysterious millionaires and the dangerous politics of nation-states.
Contemporary reviews of The Secret Adversary were positive, and the success of the novel paved the way not just for future Tommy and Tuppence adventures, but for a long, storied career of literary success for Christie.
Description
The Shaving of Shagpat isn’t just George Meredith’s first published novel, it’s also his only foray into fantasy literature. Shagpat sold poorly in its day despite good reviews, and after its disappointing sales Meredith pursed a career as a writer of romantic fiction instead. Despite its poor financial reception, Shagpat enjoys a good modern reputation and remains a classic of fantasy literature, with George Eliot going so far as to call it a “work of genius.”
The book is set in the medieval fantasy-Persia of the Arabian Nights and other oriental romances. Shibli Bagarag, a poor but talented barber, encounters a mystical crone named Noorna. Together they embark on a quest to save the city of Shagpat from a tyrant who holds the city under his command by virtue of the powers of his magical hair. On the way they battle genies and afreets, save princesses, hunt for treasures, and so on.
Meredith’s language is purposefully florid, evoking the richness of the setting, and his frequent usage of quotations and aphorisms from “the poet” give the fantasy a decidedly literate air.
Description
Armageddon 2419 A.D. features the introduction of Buck Rogers, the famous sci-fi adventure hero of early comics and radio shows. Originally published in Amazing Stories in 1928, this novella was later combined with Nowlan’s sequel, The Airlords of Han, and re-published under this same title in the 1960s.
In it we follow Buck Rogers and his mysterious transportation to far-future America. The land was conquered by the evil Han Empire centuries ago, and the local Americans, scattered into competing gangs, are now starting a rebellion. Buck meets the leaders of one of the gangs and is swept up in the events.
Description
The Gadfly is set in 1840s Italy, at a time when the country was chafing under Austrian rule. The titular character is a charming, witty writer of pointed political satires who finds himself running with a crowd of revolutionaries. The plot develops as the revolutionaries struggle against the government and as the Gadfly struggles with a mysterious hatred of the Church, and of a certain Cardinal.
The novel, with its complex themes of loyalty, romance, revolution, and struggle against both establishment and religion, was very popular in its day both in its native Ireland and other countries like Russia and China. In Russia, the book was so popular that it became required reading. Since its publication it has also been adapted into film, opera, theater, and ballet, and its popularity spurred Voynich to write sequels and prequels.
Description
John Stuart Mill was a prolific and well-regarded author and philosopher in his day, but perhaps his most enduring work is On Liberty, an essay developed over several years and with significant input from his wife. In it, he applies his views on the Utilitarian ethical theory to systems of society and governance. The result became one of the most influential essays on liberal political thought in modern history.
In On Liberty Mill addresses such familiar concepts as freedom of speech, the importance of individuality, and the limits of society’s influence on the individual. He caps the discussion with an application of these principles to problems of the day, including education and the economy.
Description
Francisco de Quevedo holds the status of a man-of-letters in the same pantheon as Cervantes; but despite that, Pablo de Segovia is his only novel. Quevedo had circulated the manuscript privately for several years before it was published in 1626 without his permission. The novel is partly a satire of contemporary Spanish life, and a caricature of the various social strata Pablo encounters and emulates.
Pablo himself is a low-born person who aspires to become a gentleman, but despite his best efforts he repeatedly fails and is eventually forced to become a “sharper,” or rogue. His failures give Quevedo an avenue to expound on his belief that attempting to break past your social class can only lead to disorder; and that despite one’s best efforts, bettering oneself is largely impossible. Pablo’s stumbling from misfortune to misfortune is a farce that helped cement Quevedo’s reputation as a literary giant.
Description
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is perhaps James De Mille’s most popular book; sadly, De Mille didn’t get to see this novel grow in popularity, as it was first serialized posthumously, in Harper’s Weekly. De Mille had written the novel before the “lost world” genre had become saturated, meaning many of the ideas were fresh and original for the time in which it was written. But, since he didn’t succeed in publishing it during his lifetime, by the time the novel was made public other authors like H. Rider Haggard had made the ideas and plot clichéd.
The novel itself tells the tale of a shipwrecked sailor, Adam More, who passes through a mysterious underground passage into a hidden land deep in the Antarctic, kept warm by a hidden volcano. The land is populated by an ancient civilization whose views on life and wealth are the polar opposite of those held in British society of the time—they view death and poverty as the highest religious and social achievements. As More adventures through the strange land, he encounters fantastic dinosaurs, lovelorn princesses, and the classic kind of adventure that foreshadows the pulp novels of the next century.
Description
Max Beerbohm earned his fame as a caricaturist and essayist, and Zuleika Dobson is his only novel. Despite that, Zuleika has earned no small measure of fame, with the Modern Library ranking it 59th in its “100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th Century.” Beerbohm’s essays were famous for their sharp wit and humor, and Zuleika follows in that tradition—Beerbohm himself called the novel “the work of a leisurely essayist amusing himself with a narrative idea.”
The novel follows Zuleika Dobson, a rather talentless woman of middling looks who nonetheless holds an almost mystical power of attraction over the men she comes in contact with. When she begins attending Oxford, she catches the eye of not just the Duke of Dorset, but of the entire male class.
Zuleika is both an easy comedy and a biting satire of Edwardian social mores and of the male-dominated Oxford student culture. Beerbohm also seems to forecast with eerie accuracy the cultural obsession with talentless celebrity that came to dominate the turn of the 21st century.
Description
Dead Souls is Nikolai Gogol’s last novel, and follows the tale of Pavel Chichikov, a down-on-his-luck gentleman determined to improve his lot in life. The story charts his scheme to purchase dead souls—the titles of deceased serfs—from wealthy landowners.
The novel’s satirical take on the state of Russian society at the time leads Chichikov into increasingly difficult circumstances, in his attempts to cheat both the system and the cavalcade of townspeople he meets along the way.
Originally planned as a trilogy, Gogol apparently only completed the first two parts, and destroyed the latter half of the second part before his death. The novel as it stands ends in mid sentence but is regarded as complete.
Description
A Room With a View, perhaps E. M. Forster’s lightest novel, was also one long in gestation—he began it as early as 1901, and only published it in 1908.
In it we meet young Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin Charlotte Bartlett, who have gone on tour to Italy. During their stay they meet a series of interesting characters, including George Emerson, the son of an eccentric gentleman. The conflict between Lucy’s choice of the unusual George, or her more conventional English suitor Cecil, forms the crux of Forster’s critique of contemporary English society.
Despite the novel being a societal critique, the prose is light and studded with Forster’s easy witticisms. In 1958 Forster added an appendix elaborating on what occurred to the main characters after the novel’s end: the two world wars figure largely in their futures.