Fiction

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Fiction’

97
One Last Question Charles Dickens

English lawyer Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine in place of a French aristocrat.

At the height (or depth) of the French Revolution, Sydney Carton has exchanged places and names with aristocrat Charles Darnay, winning just enough time for Darnay and his family to be smuggled to safety in England. As Carton is led to the guillotine, a seamstress condemned to the same fate shares a confidence with him.

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98
The White Queen’s Riddle Lewis Carroll

Alice was set a poetical test of wits by the kindly (but like all the other characters, utterly maddening) White Queen.

The White Queen tells this riddling verse to Alice without explanation. What kind of fish is it that is being served?

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99
A Perfect Combination of Imperfections Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre meets a not very handsome stranger, and likes him all the better for it.

On a dark road near Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre has caused a stranger’s horse to shy and throw its rider, a big, frowning and far from good-looking man. He brushes her offers of help away, but she hangs around all the same, prompting her to wonder why she feels so comfortable with this gruff traveller.

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100
Swept off her Feet Jane Austen

Marianne Dashwood sprains an ankle, but help is at hand.

Marianne Dashwood - young, impressionable and dangerously romantic - has gone for a walk with her younger sister Margaret, leaving her mother and older sister Elinor at home. On the way back she has slipped and sprained her ankle, but fortunately a young gentleman is there to offer her a helping hand.

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101
The Sign from Heaven Charlotte Brontë

Was it an over-excited imagination, or an answer to prayer?

Jane Eyre has fled Edward Rochester’s house and arms in shame, after discovering he was hiding his insane wife in an attic. So when the Revd St John Rivers proposes a marriage of convenience followed by a life of self-sacrifice as missionaries in India, the heartbroken Jane gives the idea serious thought.

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102
The Summons Comes for Mr Standfast John Buchan

In John Buchan’s story about the Great War, Richard Hannay must watch as his friend sacrifices his life for the Allies.

In the Great War, RAF pilot Peter Pienaar endures being shot down, lamed and kept as a prisoner of war with the help of Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. He has been free only a matter of days when despite his injury he steals a plane to take out the Germans’ flying ace Lensch, by ramming him in mid-air.

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