Staff Picks: Recommendations from the OIT Library

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.

Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal.

The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald's World of Ideas focuses on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the prevailing ideas and values that permeated American society in the late teens and early twenties, providing a vivid portrait of the intellectual and cultural milieu in which The Great Gatsby was produced. This new and original reading of Gatsby discloses Fitzgerald's remarkable awareness of the issues of his time and his debt to such philosophers and critics as William James, Josiah Royce, George Santayana, John Dewey, Walter Lippman, H.L. Mencken, and Edmund Wilson. Berman's fresh approach considers the meaning of various ideas important to the novel: for example, those moral qualities governing both social and individual life. Berman's reading of the text reveals extraordinary emphases on matters that could productively be described as philosophicalthe nature of friendship, love, and the good life. But the text of the novel has many echoes, and the same concern with moral issues - especially those issues affecting democratic life - can be found in a number of other texts of the first quarter of the century. Vigorously debated throughout Fitzgerald's own lifetime, these texts shed a completely new light on the idealism of The Great Gatsby and on the penetrating view it has of life in a new form of American democracy. Ronald Berman, noted Fitzgerald scholar, makes it clear that accepted interpretations of The Great Gatsby and of Fitzgerald's work in general must be changed. Berman demonstrates that Fitzgerald wrote within a vast dialectic, relating the ideas of the twenties to those of the "old America" described in so many of his works. Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and the other characters of Fitzgerald's greatest novel all have to consider not only their relationship to the present but also their distance from what was once a highly meaningful past.

Portrays a terrifying vision of life in the future when a totalitarian government, considered a "Negative Utopia," watches over all citizens and directs all activities, becoming more powerful as time goes by.

This volume argues that, with the death of Salinger, we are at a threshold moment in our long obsession with Holden and its eccentric author, a chance to re-approach The Catcher in the Rye. We can approach the book now as readers. As it turns out, there is more to Holden Caulfield than, well, Holden. And there is more to Catcher in the Rye than Sonny Salinger. Liberated from the need to identify with (or the zeal to condemn) Holden Caulfield, liberated from the dark charisma of its troubled hermit-author, we can at last confront a novel whose argument, as it turns out, we have only begun to measure. This volume gathers essays?now-classic investigations into the novel as well as new perspectives?that collectively offer the opportunity to begin such a re-introduction. There are, of course, essays that detail the emotional impact of first hearing Holden's voice. In these poignant essays, readers set aside the pedagogical imperative and attempt to understand the human ties they felt with Holden. These essayists remind readers today that once upon a time novels, and the characters in them, had the deeply personal impact that are now routinely associated with films, music, and television. However beyond such intimacy, the private identification with a book and a charismatic main character, Catcher speaks to a much broader community. -- Publisher's website.

"Considered by Charles Dickens 'the best story I have ever written', A Tale of Two Cities interweaves one family's intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution, in an epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption, as relevant to our times as ever"--Page [4] of cover.

The classic tale of a group of English school boys who are left stranded on an unpopulated island, and who must confront not only the defects of their society but the defects of their own nature. Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.

Among Shakespeare's plays, "Hamlet" is considered by many his masterpiece. Among actors, the role of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is considered the jewel in the crown of a triumphant theatrical career. Now Kenneth Branagh plays the leading role and co-directs a brillant ensemble performance. Three generations of legendary leading actors, many of whom first assembled for the Oscar-winning film "Henry V", gather here to perform the rarely heard complete version of the play. This clear, subtly nuanced, stunning dramatization, presented by The Renaissance Theatre Company in association with "Bbc" Broadcasting, features such luminaries as Sir John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson and Christopher Ravenscroft. It combines a full cast with stirring music and sound effects to bring this magnificent Shakespearen classic vividly to life. Revealing new riches with each listening, this production of "Hamlet" is an invaluable aid for students, teachers and all true lovers of Shakespeare - a recording to be treasured for decades to come.

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, along with the Illiad, and is one of the most widely popular anicent texts for reading. Composed around 8th century B.C., it is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the first surviving work of Western literature. The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses) and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage.

Historical. Set in mid-17th century Boston, this tale of passion, puritanism and revenge is one of the foremost classics of American literature. Its heroine, Hester Prynne, is compelled by her own moral autonomy to wear the scarlet letter but she emerges as a woman with her integrity intact.

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

As the years pass Dorian Gray always looks so young and handsome. A picture of Dorian Gray is locked in a dark room. What has happened to the picture and why does no one ever see it? From page 4 of cover.