Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1The Remains of the Day (1989)The Remains of the Day (1989) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1989Stevens explains his life through professional dignity, but the conversations he remembers keep testing what that word protects. Follow the gap between his confidence as a butler and his ability to recognise the emotional and political meaning of his service. His professional pride gives the…0
  2. 2The Good Soldier (1915)The Good Soldier (1915) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1915John Dowell returns to the same relationships from different angles, revising the order and force of what he tells you. Pay attention to changes in emphasis as well as to factual disclosures: his wish to understand the Ashburnhams is entangled with his wish to present himself. The broken chronology…0
  3. 3Notes on a Scandal (2003)Notes on a Scandal (2003) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2003Barbara Covett takes charge of explaining her fellow teacher Sheba's scandal and casts her own attention as loyalty. Listen to how neatly her judgements arrange everyone else's motives, then notice the emotional claims she makes for herself. Heller's wit makes the account dangerously enjoyable…0
  4. 4We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) 8.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1962Merricat's rules, rituals and sharp preferences make the Blackwood household feel like a complete private universe. Her voice is compelling enough that the village can begin to look exactly as she wants it to look. Keep watching what the daily routines establish and what they keep at a distance.…0
  5. 5Otchayanie (1936)Otchayanie (1936) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1936In Despair, Hermann tells his story with the pride of a man who thinks he understands both art and other people. His confidence makes the reader examine what he sees, what he assumes, and the audience he imagines he can impress. Nabokov gives self-deception a fiercely comic voice. Choose the…0
  6. 6Yellowface (2023)Yellowface (2023) 7.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2023June Hayward takes another writer's manuscript and then works remarkably hard to make her own conduct sound reasonable. The interest lies in that work of explanation: injury, entitlement and professional ambition keep becoming arguments in her defence. Kuang's brisk satire lets you recognise the…0
  7. 7Atonement (2001)Atonement (2001) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2001A child's appetite for making stories meets events she cannot fully understand. Watch how interpretations acquire the force of evidence, and how class assumptions make some explanations easier to believe than others. McEwan keeps returning to the responsibility involved in giving another person's…0
  8. 8The Sense of an Ending (2011)The Sense of an Ending (2011) 7.9/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2011Tony Webster has a manageable version of his past until an unexpected legacy makes it difficult to maintain. His revisions let you compare the convenience of a remembered life with the awkwardness of surviving evidence. Barnes is interested in the stories an ordinary person can tell without quite…0
  9. 9THE GREAT GATSBY (1925)THE GREAT GATSBY (1925)Published 1 Jan 1925Nick begins by giving you reasons to trust his judgement, then tells a story in which attraction, disgust and social ambition complicate that judgement. Listen to the difference between his declared distance and the glamour of his descriptions. The question is less a checklist of lies than the…0
  10. 10The Sea, the Sea (1978)The Sea, the Sea (1978) 7.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1978Charles Arrowby retires from the theatre but has more difficulty giving up the habit of directing other people's lives. His seaside memoir turns observation into interpretation with extraordinary speed. Let his lively descriptions entertain you while testing how much freedom his account allows the…0