Crome Yellow (1921) is a novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Inspired by his stay at Garsington Manor with members of the Bloomsbury Group, Crome Yellow, Huxley's debut novel, satirizes the society of England's intellectual and political elite. In addition to its autobiographical content, the novel investigates such themes as spirituality, the nature and composition of art, and the fear of a dystopian future. Invited to spend part of the summer...

Decimus Junius Juvenalis, known as Juvenal, is one of the greatest satirists and moralists in history. His works, of which sixteen are preserved, are scathing and unapologetic in their presentment of Rome and its citizens. Juvenal is also revered as a social historian for his vivid depictions of Latin life. He wrote his satires between 100 and 127 AD, and although his volumes of poetry were lost for several centuries, his rediscovered works introduced...

Mr Jones is a drunkard and a lazy farmer. The animals are overworked and underfed. The whole farm is unhappy under his rule. One day, the situation gets out of control and he just has to run for his life : the hungry animals are taking over ! The rules on Animal Farm are simple : No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. All animals are equal.

The second book in Booth Tarkington's "Growth" trilogy, "The Magnificent Ambersons" is considered by many to be his greatest novel. The novel depicts Mid-Western life from the post-Civil War era to the early twentieth century. First published in 1918, and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1919, this novel follows, through three generations, the decline of the Ambersons, an aristocratic family of the upper-class society of Indianapolis. Following the American...

When Bertie Wooster, a blundering, but well-meaning bachelor, returns home to London after spending time in the Canes with his aunt and cousin, he discovers that his valet, Jeeves, has been advising an old friend on love. Gussie, Bertie's school friend, is head-over-heels in love with a young, whimsical lady named Madeline. Unsure what to do with his crush, Gussie turned to Jeeves in Bertie's absence, happy with the help he received. Bertie, however,...

First published in 1842, "Dead Souls" is the story of Chichikov, a young middle-class gentleman who comes to a small town in Russia with a dubious plan to improve his wealth and position in life. He begins by spending beyond his means on the premise that he can impress the local officials and gain standing and connections in the community. At the heart of his plan is the idea of acquiring "dead souls" or more explicitly serfs of landowners who have...

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) was a Russian novelist who achieved literary fame later in life, after a career in the civil-service which spanned more than thirty years. His first novel, "A Common Story", was a definitive success and his notoriety was cemented with the publication of his second novel, "Oblomov", in 1850. Based on a short story written a year prior, "Oblomov" is about a cultured, intelligent, upper middle class man experiencing...

Raymond Gunt, in the words of the author, "is a living, walking, talking, hot steaming pile of pure id." He's a B-unit cameraman who enters an amusing downward failure spiral that takes him from London to Los Angeles and then on to an obscure island in the Pacific where a major American TV network is shooting a Survivor-style reality show. Along the way, Gunt suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, is forced to reenact the "Angry Dance" from...