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Recommendations based on A Man for All Seasonsby Robert Bolt
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Murder in the Cathedral
by T.S. Eliot
The assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, exploring themes of power, martyrdom, and the struggle between church and state.
T. S. Eliot's verse dramatization of the murder of Thomas Becket at Canterbury, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, The Archbishop Thomas Becket speaks fatal words before he is martyred in T. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
A group of rabbits embark on a treacherous journey to find a new home.
In the Sandleford warren , ,[b], Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer , receives a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction. , When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their ... (Wikipedia)
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
A nostalgic reflection on a wealthy family and the enduring power of love.
The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War . Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a ... (Wikipedia)
Till We Have Faces
by C.S. Lewis
An ancient myth re-told, exploring the complexity of divine love and its effects on human life.
The story tells the ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche , from the perspective of Orual, Psyche's older sister. It begins as the complaint of Orual as an old woman, who is bitter at the injustice ... (Wikipedia)
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis
A series of letters between two devils, providing a window into human nature and morality.
The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis is a classic masterpiece of religious satire that entertains readers with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of ... (Goodreads)
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.
The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)
J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Epic fantasy journey to save Middle-earth from an evil force.
This four-volume, boxed set contains J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterworks The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the ... (Goodreads)
Equus
by Peter Shaffer
A psychiatrist's exploration of a young man's psychological state, delving into the darkness of the human psyche.
Martin Dysart is a psychiatrist in a mental hospital. He begins with a monologue in which he outlines the case of 17-year-old Alan Strang, who blinded six horses. He also divulges his feeling that ... (Wikipedia)
Perelandra
by C.S. Lewis
Epic sci-fi fantasy about a man's mission to a new planet to protect it from evil.
The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom , some years after his return from Mars at the end of, Out of the Silent Planet, , receiving a new mission from the Oyarsa (the angelic ruler) of ... (Wikipedia)
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
A young woman's struggle to find her place in society, while being held back by her family.
The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Because the play is based on memory, ... (Wikipedia)
Long Day's Journey into Night
by Eugene O'Neill
Tragic story of a family's struggles with addiction, emotions and guilt.
Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since ... (Goodreads)
Inferno
by Dante Alighieri
An epic journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to ... (Goodreads)
Othello
by William Shakespeare
A tale of jealousy, manipulation, and tragedy, as one man's descent into madness leads to disastrous consequences.
In Othello, Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination (between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona), with elopement, and with intense mutual ... (Goodreads)
Love's Labour's Lost
by William Shakespeare
Four young men vow to give up women and focus on their studies, but their plans are derailed when four women arrive.
In this charming comedy of manners, one of Shakespeare's earliest efforts in the genre, a well-intentioned king vows to forego all fleshly delights, setting the stage for romantic hijinks. Ferdinand, ... (Goodreads)
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott
An epic tale of chivalry, heroism and romance set in 12th century England.
For this novel, Scott moved far away from the setting of his own turbulent time. He went back to the late 12th century, and to England rather than the Scottish settings of all his previous novels. He ... (Goodreads)
M. Butterfly
by David Henry Hwang
A French diplomat falls in love with a Chinese opera singer, only to discover a shocking truth.
The first act introduces the main character, René Gallimard, a civil servant attached to the French embassy in China. In a prison, Gallimard is serving a sentence for treason. Through a series of ... (Wikipedia)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
A tale of unrequited love, an unlikely hero's journey for acceptance and admiration.
Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac , a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army , is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a ... (Wikipedia)
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
A lighthearted comedy of manners, full of witty dialogue and satirizing Victorian society.
Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The ... (Goodreads)
The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book
by Bill Watterson
A compilation of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, exploring the humor of everyday life.
Find Sunday comic favorites in this classic, Calvin and Hobbes, collection. This is a collection of the classic comic strip that features Calvin, a rambunctious 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, ... (Goodreads)
Silver on the Tree
by Susan Cooper
Young siblings travel to a magical land to save the world from a powerful evil.
The Dark is rising in its last and greatest bid to control the world. And Will Stanton – last-born of the immortal Old Ones, dedicated to keeping the world free -- must join forces with this ageless ... (Goodreads)
Summer of the Monkeys
by Wilson Rawls
A young boy's journey of self-discovery, as he embarks on a quest to capture a family of monkeys.
The book is about at the end of the nineteenth century. The protagonist is a 14-year-old boy named Jay Berry Lee, who had enjoyed an idyllic childhood. Born to Missouri sharecroppers , he moves with ... (Wikipedia)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
A journey of faith in a divided land, seeking justice and reconciliation.
In the remote village of Ndotsheni, in the Natal province of eastern South Africa , the Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter from a fellow minister summoning him to Johannesburg . He is needed ... (Wikipedia)
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
A thrilling adventure of a young boy and a crew of rogues in search of buried treasure.
An old sailor named Billy Bones comes to lodge in the rural Admiral Benbow Inn on the Bristol Channel , in England. He tells the innkeeper's son, Jim Hawkins , to keep a lookout for "a one-legged ... (Wikipedia)
A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
A woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and present in a post-war New Orleans.
After the loss of her family home to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi , to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger married sister, Stella , ... (Wikipedia)
Mila 18
by Leon Uris
A historical novel set in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, following the lives of Jewish resistance fighters.
It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of ... (Goodreads)
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
Epic poem of the Fall of Man, exploring the depths of human nature and the consequences of sin.
John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of ... (Goodreads)
A Christmas Memory
by Truman Capote
A nostalgic tale of childhood innocence, exploring the bittersweet joys of the holiday season.
Narrated by an unnamed, seven-year-old boy who is referred to as "Buddy" by his older cousin, "A Christmas Memory" is about the narrator's relationship with his older, unnamed, female cousin, to whom ... (Wikipedia)
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
A collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on a journey to Canterbury.
The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others ... (Goodreads)
Billy Budd, Sailor
by Herman Melville
A story of justice, morality, and innocence against a backdrop of a naval war.
Billy Budd is a seaman impressed into service aboard HMS Bellipotent in the year 1797, when the Royal Navy was reeling from two major mutinies and was threatened by the Revolutionary French Republic ... (Wikipedia)
The Hollow Hills
by Mary Stewart
A young man's quest to restore peace to a magical kingdom and become its rightful leader.
Keeping watch over the young Arthur Pendragon, the prince and prophet Merlin Ambrosius is haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, which has been hidden for centuries. When Uther Pendragon is ... (Goodreads)
