Truth & Lies

IntroductionHenrik Ibsen, a well-known Norwegian playwright who is often lauded as the founder of modern drama, wrote An Enemy of the People in 1882. It is an example of Ibsen’s starkly realist, late-career style. Ibsen’s works were very popular throughout his life, but often drew criticism due to their frank discussion of political and social problems in 19th-century Norwegian society. Two years prior he had released the most controversial work of his career, Ghosts, which... Read An Enemy of the People Summary

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P.D. James wrote four detective novels centered on Inspector Adam Dalgliesh before publishing An Unsuitable Job for a Woman featuring protagonist and private investigator Cordelia Gray, with the popular character Dalgliesh making a cameo appearance. The novel was published in 1972 and is set at the same time, in the city of London.While this book is faithful to many tropes of the genre, it is notable for James’s elegant prose and detailed descriptions, as well... Read An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Summary

A Perfect Spy is a 1986 spy novel by British author John le Carré. Described by the author as his most autobiographical work, the story involves the unexpected disappearance of British spy Magnus Pym after his father’s funeral. While hiding from his superiors, Pym reflects on his father’s influence and his lifetime spent lying to the world. A Perfect Spy has been adapted for television and radio. The story explores themes common to the world... Read A Perfect Spy Summary

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Apology, also known as The Apology of Socrates, is a philosophical dialogue written by the Greek philosopher Plato chronicling the trial of his mentor Socrates in 399 BCE. After finding Socrates guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth, the Athenian jury sentenced him to death. Socrates carried out his own execution by drinking a mixture of poisonous hemlock. Although Plato likely took modest artistic liberties in the work, many historians believe Apology to be a... Read Apology Summary

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“Araby” is a short story by Irish writer James Joyce. The story is a part of Joyce’s renowned Dubliners collection, first published in 1914, which portrays daily life in the Irish city of Dublin in the early 20th century. In “Araby,” a young boy falls in love with his friend’s sister and attempts to purchase her a gift from the Araby Bazaar. The short story has been adapted as a song and a short film... Read Araby Summary

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard was first performed on April 13, 1993, at the Royal National Theatre in London. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it one of the best science-related works ever written.The play, which contains elements of historical fiction, has dual plot lines—one historical and one modern—that share the same physical setting. In the 19th century, the play follows the young Thomasina, a mathematical genius far ahead of her time, and... Read Arcadia Summary

“A Real Durwan” is the fourth story in Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut short-story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award. The story recounts the daily lives of the stair-sweeper, Boori Ma, and the families who share a building of flats in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) after the Partition of India in 1947. An English-born American author raised by Bengali parents, Lahiri is known for her characters’... Read A Real Durwan Summary

As an epigram, Milton quotes Euripides, who wrote: “This is true liberty, when free-born men, having the advise the public, may speak free, which he who can, and will, deserves high praise; who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace; what can be juster in a state than this?” (337). Milton explains that addressing Parliament in the name of the “public good” (337) is no small feat and that any person in this position... Read Areopagitica Summary

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A River Sutra, a novel by Indian American author Gita Mehta, was first published in 1993. The novel is set on the banks of the Narmada River in India, and it is comprised of interconnected stories about characters who are drawn to the river. The narrator seeks to retreat from the world after his wife’s death, but he gains an appreciation for the lived experiences of humanity through the stories he hears. The novel discusses... Read A River Sutra Summary

A Room with a View is a 1908 historical fiction/romance novel by British author E. M. Forster. The novel is split between Italy and England, telling the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young and spirited middle-class Englishwoman who embarks on a journey of self-discovery during a trip to Italy. During her travels, Lucy falls in love with the free-spirited and unconventional George Emerson, a fellow tourist, but is later forced to choose between her heart's... Read A Room with a View Summary

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Phillip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, first published in 1977, is a dystopian novel that is testament to a time—late ‘60s-early ‘70s—when drug experimentation was a viable alternative to the grown-up world of nine-to-five jobs and suburban family life. Set in a future Southern California (1994), the novel is dedicated to many of Dick’s friends who didn’t survive the experiment or were left with permanent brain damage. Dick’s prolific career includes over 40 novels and... Read A Scanner Darkly Summary

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A Simple Favor is New York Times bestselling author Darcey Bell’s debut novel. Published in 2017 by Harper, the novel was praised for its chilling portrayals of its characters and shocking plot twists, and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Bell followed this novel in 2020 with Something She’s Not Telling Us, cementing her reputation for domestic noir psychological thrillers. In 2018, A Simple Favor was adapted into a movie starring Blake Lively and... Read A Simple Favor Summary

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