Title British Writers NFS Vol# DFS Vol# Twayne/
Other/
Bloom
Alchemist, The  What the victims of the three swindlers perceive as reality is not the truth of the play. Each one thinks that he will receive wealth or power as a reward gained through little effort. The reality is that each will be left with less wealth and no more power than they had initially. Johnson, Ben   4 N/N/Y
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland A tale in which Alice falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a land filled with peculiar characters and situations. Carroll, Lewis  7   N/N/Y
Amadeus   The play explores the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, the court composer for the Emperor of Austria in the late eighteenth century. Shaffer, Peter   13 N/N/N
Animal Farm A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government. Orwell, George  3   N/Y/Y
Arcadia    By setting much of Arcadia in 1809, Stoppard pits two opposing historical epochs against each other: Enlightenment and Romanticism.  Stoppard, Tom   5 N/N/N
Birthday Party, The    As in many absurdist works, The Birthday Party is full of disjointed information that defies efforts to distinguish between reality and illusion.  Pinter, Harold   5 N/N/N
Black Beauty Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture
of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless:
animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration
and kindness.
Sewell, Anna 22   N/N/N
Blue Room, The       The most obvious motif in The Blue Room is sex, in all its many guises. Hare, David   7 N/N/N
Brave New World Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom. Huxley, Aldous 6   Y/Y/Y
Brideshead Revisited While at Oxford, Charles Ryder meets boyish, flamboyant Sebastian Flyte, who introduces Charles to a charmed and glamorous way of life that continues until Sebastian's health deteriorates. Waugh, Evelyn  13   N/Y/Y
Browning Version, The        The story is about Andrew Crocker-Harris who is considered a failure by everyone, including himself. Andrew’s intelligence as a classics scholar is never questioned. Yet because he is unpopular, and perceived as a strict schoolmaster and a bad jokester, he is regarded as a failure.  Rattigan,
   Terrence
  8 N/N/N
Caretaker, The     In The Caretaker none of the characters can be trusted to speak the truth. All are, to some extent, deceptive, twisting reality in order to manipulate one another and to delude themselves. Pinter, Harold   7 N/N/N
Changeling, The A changeling is a fickle person, a waverer, a
person posing as another person, or an idiot. The Changeling portrays
them all. The play interchanges not only characters, but authors, too.
Written in 1622, it is one of the most successful collaborations in the
history of the theater. 
Middleton,
   Thomas
   and Rowley,
   William
  22 N/N/N
Chorus of Disapproval, A       Ayckbourn explores the theme of change and transformation in A Chorus of Disapproval through the characters of Guy Jones and Hannah Lleweylln. Ayckbourn, Alan   7 N/N/N
Christmas Carol, A Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman, learns the true meaning of Christmas after he is visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future. Dickens, Charles 10   Y/Y/Y
Clockwork Orange, A  Presents Burgess' satire of the present inhumanity of man to man through a futuristic culture where teenagers rule with violence, and includes the final chapter deleted from the first American edition. Burgess, Anthony 15   Y/Y/N
Cloud Nine               Cloud Nine is an inventive, surrealistic and entertaining look at sexual repression and sexual role conditioning. Churchill, Caryl 16   N/N/N
Copenhagen In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionized atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment; it ended in disaster."  Frayn, Michael   22 N/N/N
Darkness at Noon An aging revolutionary is imprisoned by his own political party and forced to confess to crimes he never committed. Where once he saw promise for humanity, he now sees only darkness. Koestler, Arthur 19   N/Y/N
Death of the Heart, The Orphaned at sixteen, Portia must learn to live with unknown relatives. Bowen, Elizabeth  13   Y/N/N
Doctor Faustus     A play in which the main character makes a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for earthly power, raises many interrelated themes.  Marlowe,
   Christopher
  1 N/N/N
Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth     The play is based on a section of the philosophical investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein, who explored how people use language to communicate.  Stoppard, Tom 16   N/N/N
Duchess of Malfi, The                An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its imagery and dramatic action.  Webster, John 17   N/N/N
Duchess of Malfi, The                An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its imagery and dramatic action.  Webster, John   17 N/N/N
Edward II               In Elizabethan England, Niccolo Machiavelli's Il Principe (The Prince, 1505) was considered a treatise on the science of evil statesmanship because it outlined how a cunning tyrant could, through brutal and forceful measures, take and maintain control over a region and a people. Marlowe,
   Christopher
  5 N/N/Y
Emma Emma tries to impose her match making ideas on everyone and finds that sometimes she should desist. Austen, Jane  21   N/Y/Y
Empire of the Sun Jim, 11, becomes separated from his parents in Shanghai when the Japanese capture it on December 8, 1941, and he struggles for the next four years to stay alive. Ballard, J. G.  8   N/N/N
End of the Affair, The  After a man is almost killed in a bombing raid, the married woman with whom he has been having an affair breaks away from him. Greene, Graham  16   N/Y/Y
Entertaining Mr. Sloane        Orton's most obvious subject in Entertaining Mr. Sloane is sexual appetite. With the exception of the aged Kemp, the characters are so preoccupied with their sexual needs that by the end of the play they appear completely self-centered, frighteningly insensitive, and almost subhuman. Orton, Joe   3 N/N/N
Equus    There is an ethical ambiguity explored in Equus, the conflict between two ideas of right. The freedom of the individual to do whatever he or she wants must always be balanced with the social need to limit this freedom when a person’s actions are harmful to others. Shaffer, Peter   5 N/N/N
Evelina A woman enjoying the social life in London during the late 18th century writes to her friends about her experiences. Burney, Fanny  16   N/Y/Y
Faerie Queene, The            The story of a knight, representing a
particular Christian virtue, as he or she would convey at the court of the Faerie Queene. (Epics For Students Vol. 2)
Spenser, Edmund     N/N/N
Far From the Madding Crowd Although Gabriel Oak loves the proud Bathsheba Everdene, she willfully becomes involved with two other unsuitable men, with tragic consequences. Hardy, Thomas  19   Y/Y/Y
For Services Rendered The story, which so shocked early audiences, focuses on the devastating effects of World War I on an English family. As Maugham chronicles the damaged lives of each member of the Ardsley family and their friends, he presents a scathing indictment of the war and the governments that convince young men to sacrifice their lives in the name of glory.  Maugham,
   W. Somerset
  22 N/N/N
Frankenstein A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.  Shelley, Mary  1   N/Y/Y
French Lieutenant's Woman, The        Each character in the novel is constrained in some way by Victorian society.  Fowles, John 21   N/Y/N
Great Expectations The orphan, Pip, and the convict, Magwitch, the beautiful Estella, and her guardian, the embittered and vengeful Miss Havisham, the ambitious lawyer, Mr. Jaggers -- all have a part to play in the mystery. Dickens, Charles 4   Y/Y/Y
Gulliver’s Travels The voyages of an Englishman carry him to such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land of giants; and a country ruled by horses. Swift, Jonathan  6   N/Y/Y
Hard Times Raised during the rise of industry, Louisa, whose poor choices in later life result from too practical an upbringing, cares nothing about what happens to her. Dickens, Charles 20   Y/Y/Y
Hay Fever       Much of the humor in Hay Fever derives from the way Coward’s characters, despite being placed in ordinary situations, behave in odd and unexpected ways.  Coward, Noel   6 N/N/N
Heart of Darkness Marlowe sails down the Congo in search of Kurtz, a company agent who has, according to rumors, become insane in the jungle isolation. Conrad, Joseph 2   N/Y/Y
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Chronicles the off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, notions, and acquaintances of galactic traveler Arthur Dent. Adams, Douglas  7   N/N/N
Hobbit, The Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return. Tolkien, J. R. R. 8   N/Y/Y
Homecoming, The      A family lives in the same house and though they live side-by-side physically, their emotional alienation and consequent loneliness is palpable.  Pinter, Harold   3 N/N/N
Hotel du Lac Not surprisingly, this is a story of love: The love between women friends who have differing values, the love of a man who needs a woman now that his mother is dead, the love of a single woman who everyone thinks needs a faithful man. Edith struggles to understand and articulate her own truths while she lives in the overly-proper and ostentatious Hotel du Lac, takes long walks, eats excellent cuisine, retires early, and tries to write romantic fiction. She ponders accepting the proposal of a man she doesn't love. Brookner, Anita 23   N/N/N
How I learned to Drive   The 1950s pop music accompanying
 Li'l Bit's excursion down memory lane cannot drown out the ghosts of her past.
Vogel, Paula   14 N/N/N
Howard's End Recounts the adventures of two sisters, Margaret and Helen Schlegel, after two encounters with people not of their quiet, cultivated London set. Forster, E. M.  10   N/N/Y
I, Claudius          The Romans believed that the Fates had already determined their futures, which could not be altered. Graves, Robert 21   N/N/N
Indian Ink   The central theme of Stoppard’s play is the historical, social, and cultural significance of the British Empire.  Stoppard, Tom   11 N/N/N
Jane Eyre Jane becomes a governess in Mr. Rochester's home of Thornfield and falls in love with him before she finds that he has a tragic secret. Bronte, Charlotte  4   Y/Y/Y
Jesus Christ Superstar              Jesus Christ Superstar is not simply a portrayal of the historical figure of Jesus, a rabbi who promoted the idea of loving one’s enemy, but an exploration of the star status of Jesus, who gathered around him a following of devoted disciples and had a timeless, worldwide impact.  Lloyd, Andrew
  and Rice, Tim
  7 N/N/N
Jew of Malta, The    One of the central themes in The Jew of Malta is the differences between what is real and what only appears real. Marlowe,
   Christopher
  13 N/N/Y
Kim          The ideal of the equality and unity of men echoes across several motifs in Kim, most notably through the Buddhist teachings of Teshoo Lama. Kipling, Rudyard 21   N/N/N
Last King of Scotland, The  The reluctant personal physician to Idi Amin, Scottish civil servant Nicholas Garrigan, is drawn despite himself to the charismatic but brutal dictator, until a plot against Amin awakens him to the unspeakable horror and cruelty of the regime.               Foden, Giles  15   N/Y/N
Le Morte d' Arthur         Presents the epic story of King Arthur, his
knights of the Round Table, the sword Excalibur, and his tragic and poetic death. (Epics For Students Vol. 2)
Malory, Thomas     Y/N/N
Lear                  In Lear Bond provides a picture of a family that has disintegrated. Bond, Edward   3 N/N/N
Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The This is a play that takes the social consciousness of the original Dickens novel to new dimensions, where audiences can be reminded of the need for social reform, as well as uplifted by the play's message. Edgar, David 15   N/N/N
Look Back in Anger      Jimmy Porter spoke for a large segment of the British population in 1956 when he ranted about his alienation from a society in which he was denied any meaningful role. Osborne, John   4 N/N/N
Lord Jim A young Englishman branded as a coward seeks personal redemption for an act of selfishness Conrad, Joseph 16   N/Y/Y
Lord of the Flies The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island. Golding, William  2   Y/Y/Y
Love for Love    is a racy, broad, farcical comedy, which relies on
mistaken impressions, disguises, and deception for much of its humor.
Congreve, William 14   N/N/N
Luther      This drama offers an intimate, anguished portrait of the great rebel priest. Osborne, John   19 N/N/N
Man For All Seasons, A     The play presents a "hero of the self" whose unwavering integrity collides with King Henry VIII's egoistic drive to wrench personal salvation and political permanence for the Tudor line from an unwilling, because politically cornered, Pope. Bolt, Robert   2 N/N/N
Mayor of Casterbridge, The  After Michael Henchard becomes the mayor of Casterbridge, the wife and children he sold at a fair 18 years previously reappear. Hardy, Thomas  15   Y/Y/Y
Men in White                 The drama focuses on the personal sacrifices required by the medical profession. The main theme of the play is summed up in one of the doctor's final utterances: "It's not easy for any of us. But in the end our reward is something richer than simply living.  Kingsley, Sidney   14 N/N/N
Middlemarch At the story's center stands the intellectual and idealistic Dorothea Brooke--a character who in many ways resembles Eliot herself. But the very qualities that set Dorothea apart from the materialistic, mean-spirited society around her also lead her into a disastrous marriage with a man she mistakes for her soul mate. Eliot, George  23   N/N/N
Mill on the Floss, The  St. Ogg, a small town, is the main setting for the difficult relations of a brother and sister, once closely tied, and an unworthy lover. Eliot, George  17   N/Y/Y
Moll Flanders Moll marries five times and plies the trades of thief and harlot before becoming penitent. Defoe, Daniel  13   N/N/Y
Mountain Language        Set in a prison where the inmates are forbidden to speak their own language, the play is comprised of four terse, arresting scenes which make masterful use of nuance and subtle understatement (with sudden bursts of violence) to create an overwhelming sense of terror and shocking futility. Pinter, Harold   14 N/N/N
Mrs. Dalloway A poignant portrayal of the thoughts and events that comprise one day in a woman's life. Woolf, Virginia  12   N/Y/Y
Nectar in a Sieve In a small village in India, a simple peasant woman recalls her life as a child bride, a farmer's wife, and a devoted mother amidst fights to meet changing times, poverty, and disaster. Markandaya,
   Kamala
13   N/N/N
Nineteen Eighty-Four In this novel England has become a totalitarian society in which every aspect of the lives of its citizens is controlled by the state and even the possibility of independent thought has been destroyed. Orwell, George  7   Y/N/Y
Oliver Twist Rogues train Oliver Twist to become a pickpocket, but he strives to escape from crime and the workhouse to which he is subject. Dickens, Charles 14   Y/Y/Y
On the Beach Following a nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere, the inhabitants of a small Australian community await the inevitable after-effects of the bombs to reach them. Shute, Nevil  9   N/N/N
Othello                 The middle-aged general Othello the ``moor'' and young European noblewoman Desdemona fall in love and marry secretly.  Iago's envy of Othello and ability to whip him into a jealous rage at Desdemona are thus cast in a new light, though the tragic outcome remains the same. This story succeeds in holding up a mirror to contemporary society. Shakespeare,
  William
  20 Y/N/N
Paradise Lost         Depicts the creation, fall, and redemption of
humankind and the moral and spiritual dilemmas of God's judgment. (Epics For Students Vol. 1)
Milton, John     Y/Y/N
Passage to India, A  Two women come to Chandrapore, India, and their lack of understanding of the culture causes one of them to make an unjust accusation. Forster, E. M.  3   N/N/Y
Persuasion The story of Anne Elliot and the love she once had for a naval officer. She had been persuaded by her family that he was not suitable, and regretfully, she lets him slip away. Years later, they meet again. Austen, Jane  14   N/Y/Y
Play with a Tiger          is about the rootless, de-classed people who live in bed-sitting rooms or small flats or the cheaper hotel rooms. Lessing, Doris 20   N/N/N
Plenty     Much of the themes of duty and responsibility in Plenty revolve around social expectations and patriotic obligations.  Hare, David   4 N/N/N
Pride and Prejudice Wealthy Mr. Darcy and spirited Elizabeth Bennett dislike each other at first sight, and each must contend with their pride and prejudices while Elizabeth's mother plots economically advantageous marriages for all her daughters. Austen, Jane  1   N/Y/Y
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The The elegantly styled classic
story of a young, unorthodox teacher and her special—and ultimately
dangerous—relationship with six of her students.
Spark, Muriel 22   N/N/N
Private Lives  As a "comedy of manners," Private Lives deals with the conventions and social rituals by which a person presents their "public'' self to the world—and with the "private" passions and motivations that lie beneath the veneer of etiquette and respectability. Coward, Noel   3 N/N/N
Razor's Edge, The The Great War changed everything and the years following it were tumultuous - most of all for those who lived the war first-hand. Maugham himself is a character in this novel of self-discovery and search for meaning, but the protagonist is a character named Larry. Battered physically and spiritually by the war, Larry's physical wounds heal, but his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. Maugham,
   W. Somerset
23   N/N/N
Real Thing, The      The title of The Real Thing and its subject matter appear to lay bare Stoppard’s particular preoccupation in this play: he is characteristically investigating an ethical issue (adultery) and questioning its philosophical partner, the nature of true love.  Stoppard, Tom   8 N/N/N
Rebecca With a husband she barely knows, the young bride arrives at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten.  Du Maurier, Daphne  12   N/N/Y
Remains of the Day, The  Stevens, an elderly butler, hopes to rise to the top of his profession, and he remains stoic and unemotional at his father's death and neglects the opportunity to pursue a relationship with a former housekeeper. Ishiguro, Kazuo 13   N/N/N
Return of the Native, The Clym's mother disapproves of his marriage, and when she comes to visit, Clym's wife is entertaining her lover and does not answer the door. Hardy, Thomas  11   Y/N/Y
Rites            The play takes place in a woman's public restroom, and has an all-female cast.  The action and dialogue of the play reveal the anger and resentment the women feel toward men in their romantic and sexual relationships, and at work. The play finally erupts in a few moments of frenzied violence in which the women kill someone they believe to be a male spy, only to find that their victim is a woman. Duffy, Maureen   15 N/N/N
Robinson Crusoe During one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's, an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island. Defoe, Daniel  9   N/N/Y
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is
considered to be one of the greatest tragic love stories of all time. Romeo who is a member of the house of Montague falls in love with Juliet who is a member of the house of Capulet. The Montagues and the Capulets have been engaged in a feud for many years and as such the love between Romeo and Juliet is forbidden. Written near the end of the 16th century,
Romeo and Juliet which is one of Shakespeare's earliest dramas, is the story of love that can never be realized and the tragedy that ensues. 
Shakespeare,
   William
  21 N/N/Y
Room with a View, A  Lucy Honeychurch falls in love while on a visit to Florence and must choose between fulfilling her social role or following her heart. Forster, E. M.  11   N/N/Y
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead          Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead blends two stories: Shakespeare's Hamlet and Stoppard's own version of how the two courtiers might have felt and behaved after they were summoned by King Claudius to spy on their schoolmate, Hamlet. Stoppard, Tom   2 N/N/N
Rover, The     Women in seventeenth-century Europe had few options in terms of marriage and courtship. They could not initiate relations with men, and often their parents made the final decision about whom they would marry. Behn, Aphra 16   N/N/N
Ruling Class, The     Greed is evident in all of Barnes’s characters save the insane Jack. Barnes, Peter   6 N/N/N
Saved                   All of the characters in Saved suffer alienation from the natural world, from each other, from their work, and from society as a whole; the result is extreme loneliness.  Bond, Edward   8 N/N/N
Scoop A comedy of England's newspaper business of the 1930s and the story of William Boot, a innocent hick from the country who writes careful essays about the habits of the badger. Through a series of accidents and mistaken identity, Boot is hired as a war correspondent for a Fleet Street newspaper. The uncomprehending Boot is sent to the fictional African country of Ishmaelia to cover an expected revolution. Although he has no idea what he is doing and he can't understand the incomprehensible telegrams from his London editors, Boot eventually gets the big story.  Waugh, Evelyn  17   N/Y/Y
Secret Rapture, The          Centered around the relationship between two sisters and their father's dissolute girlfriend in the wake of the father's death. As the estate is settled and a variety of characters is introduced, Hare deftly mines the links between the public and private spheres of life, and simultaneously indicts a conservative government and the wild caprice of his characters.  Hare, David 16   N/N/N
Sense and Sensibility Two sisters, one practical and conventional and the other emotional and sentimental, find that only through compromise of their mutual differences can they get along. Austen, Jane  18   N/Y/Y
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance      Guilt and remorse underscore much of Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance. Musgrave is overcome by guilt over the death of Billy Hicks as well as the five civilians who were killed in retaliation.  Arden, John   9 N/N/N
Shadowlands   Poses classic questions about God, pain and love, but mostly it makes you determined to embrace life. Nicholson, William   11 N/N/N
She Stoops To Conquer    Most everyone has been the target of practical jokes, and most have been out on blind dates. She Stoops to Conquer is based on two such incidents, creating a complicated, convoluted plot based on miscommunication and mistaken identities.  Goldsmith, Oliver   1 N/N/N
Silas Marner This story of a linen weaver in early 19th century England demonstrates the author’s conviction that devoted human relationships can take the place of religious beliefs in giving meaning and purpose to life. The novel also implies a criticism of Victorian materialism. Eliot, George  20   N/Y/Y
Sons and Lovers Paul Morel's childhood and early manhood in the English midlands are deeply affected by his devotion to and concern for his dominating mother. Lawrence, D.H. 18   N/Y/Y
Spanish Tragedy, The The pain of those who suffer injustice
here on earth and clamour for revenge is painful to behold. Hieronimo,
the main character, manages to take matters into his own hands after
exhausting all other possibilities, and thus ironically enacts the wishes of the higher powers.
Kyd, Thomas   21 N/N/N
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street                    The gruesome storyline of this musical thriller focuses on the murderous machinations of a vengeful English barber and his accommodating landlady. Wheeler, Hugh   19 N/N/N
Tale of Two Cities, A  Two men who look alike love Lucie Manette, and during the French Revolution one of them goes to the guillotine in place of the other for Lucie's happiness. Dickens, Charles 5   Y/Y/Y
Tamburlaine The Great Tamburlaine cranks the excitements of language and spectacle to an unprecedented pitch, not simply to indulge the fantasies of the audience but as an exemplary demonstration of poetry's dangerous potency. Marlowe,
   Christopher
  21 N/N/N        
Taste of Honey, A      Jo has essentially been abandoned by her mother. This has been a life-long pattern, but it becomes overwhelming when Helen moves her daughter to a new flat just before Christmas and then leaves almost immediately with her boyfriend. Delaney, Shelagh   7 N/N/N        
Tess of the d'Urbervilles The son in the family for which Tess Durbeyfield works assaults her, and she has a child who dies in infancy, but her husband is unforgiving. Hardy, Thomas  3   Y/N/Y        
Time Machine, The  When a turn-of-the-century scientist builds a time machine, his perilous journey into the far distant future leads to the discovery of a strange and terrifying new world. Wells, H. G. 17   Y/Y/Y        
Tis a Pity She's a Whore       The play's action revolves around love and marriage, though, the two are not necessarily synonymous.  Ford, John   7 N/N/N        
To the Lighthouse An English family's complex lives are followed and picked up again after a ten year hiatus in order to explore the effects of time. Woolf, Virginia  8   N/Y/Y        
Tom Jones In 1745, Tom Jones experiences a variety of situations resulting from his love for a young girl. Fielding, Henry  18   N/Y/Y        
Top Girls  The play was regarded as a unique, if difficult, play about the challenges working women face in the contemporary business world and society at large.  Churchill, Caryl   12 N/N/N        
Travesties    One of the main questions Stoppard raises in Travesties is whether there should be any relationship between art and politics. His characters have divergent opinions on this topic.  Stoppard, Tom   13 N/N/N        
Turn of the Screw, The  The story unfolds with the arrival of a new governess at a remote country estate. She has been hired by the uncle of two young orphans to take complete charge of the children's lives and upbringing. Her first peaceful weeks are disturbed by the apparition of the ghosts of two evil servants who once served in the house. James, Henry 16   Y/Y/Y        
Vanity Fair Becky Sharp and her husband stand in contrast to the lives of Dobbin and Amelia in this revelation of societal classes. Thackeray,
   William
   Makepeace 
13   Y/Y/N        
Volpone    What Volpone and Mosca's victims perceive as reality is not the truth of the play. Each one thinks that he will be made heir to Volpone's fortune.  Jonson, Ben   10 N/N/Y        
War of the Worlds, The This story of a Martian invasion of the safe and comfortable counties around London allows H. G. Wells to explore two familiar themes in his work. He suggests, at a time when Darwin was still a controversial figure, that the Victorian gentleman may not be the high point of evolution. At the same time, a popular strand of alarmist invasion stories had made these counties an imaginary battlefield. Wells, H. G. 20   Y/Y/Y        
Waterland When his school decides to phase out history from the curriculum, a history teacher abandons his formal lessons to tell his students stories about his native Fenland and its inhabitants. Swift, Jonathan  18   N/Y/N        
Watership Down In a constant struggle against oppression, a group of rabbits search for peaceful co-existence. Adams, Richard  11   N/N/N        
Way of the World, The      One of the greatest of all Restoration comedies, this knowing comedy of manners depicts the scheming of a nest of shallow, deceitful aristocrats to prevent two lovers from marrying.  Congreve, William 15   N/N/N
What the Butler Saw    Orton prefaces What the Butler Saw with a quotation from The Revenger's Tragedy: ‘‘Surely we're all mad people, and they/Whom we think are, are not.’’  Orton, Joe   6 N/N/N
White Devil, The           The White Devil gives us a compellingly dangerous and fascinating woman who consents to the murder of her ineffectual husband. Her defence against the charge of adultery transforms a lurid tale of crime into high tragedy. Webster, John 19   N/N/N
White Devil, The           The White Devil gives us a compellingly dangerous and fascinating woman who consents to the murder of her ineffectual husband. Her defence against the charge of adultery transforms a lurid tale of crime into high tragedy. Webster, John   19 N/N/N
Wide Sargasso Sea Set in the West Indies and England, Wide Sargasso Sea retells Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847) from the point of view of Rochester and his first wife. Its primary settings on Jamaica and one of the Windward Islands help make the reader understand and empathize with Antoinette/Bertha, who is depicted unsympathetically in Jane Eyre. Rhys, Jean 19   N/Y/N
Wind in the Willlows, The Toad, Rat, Mole and Badger have adventures along the river bank, take to the open road and their cart gets overturned by a passing motorcar. They eventually return to reclaim Toad Hall from weasels, ferrets, and stoats who have taken over during their absence.  Grahame, Kenneth  20   N/N/Y