The first book Lewis wrote was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was published in 1949. Characters in the series include Aslan, a powerful and benevolent lion meant to represent Jesus Christ; Mr. Tumnus, a faun; the evil White Witch Jadis; Prince Caspian, a hero and adventurer; and the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edward.

This classic novel was written by William Golding and follows the story of Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and other boys as they try to survive on a desert island in the wake of a plane crash and nuclear war. The novel examines human nature and morality as well as the contrast between the needs of an individual and the needs of a society.

Brighton Rock is a 1938 novel by Graham Greene, a writer whose work often investigated contemporary moral, religious, and political issues. The novel begins as a traditional thriller set at the seaside resort town of Brighton but soon morphs into an examination of human morality and crime. The main characters in this novel are anti-hero Pinkie Brown, a teenage gangster who is blinded by acid in the story’s denouement; Rose, a naïve girl who is deceived by and marries Pinkie; and Ida Arnold, a kind and determined woman who tracks down Pinkie’s misdeeds.

The book in question is Lady Chatterly’s Lover, which was written by D. H. Lawrence. In the novel, Lawrence discusses the insufficiencies of a purely intellectual life and the importance of physical relationships. The story follows the eponymous Lady Chatterly who, frustrated by emotional and physical neglect from her paralyzed husband, begins an affair with the self-assured and sometimes brutal Oliver Mellors.

Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim follows the misadventures of Jim Dixon, a professor of medieval literature at an unnamed English university. Jim’s disgust with the academic pretension at his university transforms over the course of the novel from private scorn to uncontrollable public excess, and after giving a disastrously drunken lecture, he is fired. The book is noted as an early example of the “boarding school” or “campus” novel genre.

The novel described is Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. The story concerns the young Charles Ryder, who is befriended by Sebastian Marchmain (son and heir apparent of the elite Roman Catholic Marchmain family) and who eventually falls in love with Julia Marchmain. The novel examines contemporary issues such as faith and religion, homosexuality, alcoholism, and family ties.

Angela Carter (1940-1992) was a prolific author, writing short stories, novels, nonfiction, poetry, plays, and children’s books. She is best known for Nights at the Circus, a picaresque novel that features the magical adventures of the winged Sophie Fevvers and the journalist Jack Walser, and The Bloody Chamber, a short story collection that re-envisions classic fairy tales and folktales through a feminist lens.

This passage comes from Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, which is one of the best examples of the genre of American literature known as the "captivity narrative."  In the text, Rowlandson, a Puritan, recounts her experiences as a captive of Native Americans in New England.

Passage adapted from Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson (1682)

As alluded to in the passage, this work is Uncle Tom’s Cabin—specifically, an excerpt from a slaveowner’s speech to his slaves as he sets them free. The novel was published in 1852, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American abolitionist and sister of the preacher Henry Ward Beecher.

The above paragraphs are taken from the opening of American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre short story “The Cask of Amontillado.” In the story, the narrator seeks revenge upon the hapless, drunk Fortunato by luring him into a cellar under the pretense of inspecting a cask of Amontillado sherry, walling him up, and leaving him to die.