Zjednodušená četba

Maugham, the quintessential observer of human behaviour, tells the stories of: The Creative Impulse, The Round Dozen and Jane. Recommended for older readers

It is 1852 and three young people meet for the first time in the High Court of Chancery. They are the latest victims to be caught in the long-running court case of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce. A case which has caused the financial and moral breakdown of many previous claimants.

Giles Winterbourne is engaged to Grace Melbury, the daughter of a rich timber merchant. When Grace returns from being educated abroad she is a different person. And when Giles loses all his money, Grace's father insists she marry a handsome doctor.

Inspector Morse and his assistant, Sergeant Lewis, are called to a house where the dead body of a member of an examinations syndicate has been found. Morse immediately suspects murder and starts the painstaking task of discovering the identity of the murderer and their motive - in his usual highly idiosyncratic way.

In this brilliant novel, Achebe uses the 'fall' of one man, a descendant of the hero in Things Fall Apart, to depict the birth of a new age in Nigerian life. A powerful, disillusioning age of corruption dawns.