Henry Carter Hull

This Side of Paradise chronicles the coming of age of Amory Blaine, born to a wealthy midwestern family. It begins with Amory as a spoiled youth, doted on by his eccentric mother Beatrice. It follows him as he attends preparatory school and Princeton, and then briefly attempts but quickly abandons at a career in advertising. His service in World War I is mentioned but mostly glossed over. Covered in much more detail are his various romances:

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A convict in an Essex churchyard, the half-crazed Miss Havisham, and the lovely but inaccessible Estella all play a part in the life of Pip, a young village boy with a mysterious legacy.

This classic tragicomic tale from George Barr McCutcheon transforms everyone's favorite caviar-and-champagne dream into a soul-shaking test of mistrust and reckless spending Popular, good-looking, and enterprising, Montgomery Brewster is the toast of New York. While celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday among friends, Monty receives word that his grandfather has died. Before long, New York is abuzz with the news. When Monty inherits $1 million from...

Chabon's sensational debut novel: the coming-of-age story of Art Bechstein, a recent graduate whose life is forever changed by one sultry summer Art Bechstein may be too young to know what he wants to do with his life, but he knows what he doesn't want: the life of his father, a man who laundered money for the mob. Bechstein spends the summer after his graduation from a Pittsburgh university searching for his future and finding his own sort of trouble...

The searing novel of a brutal boyhood in 1940s Chicago -- and a young man walking the knife's edge between a life of crime and a brighter future. The son of a single mother addicted to heroin, Richie grows up in poverty and hardship. His adolescence is a constant battle between hope -- in the form of a kind boxing coach, a job in a bowling alley where he can sneak a nap, and a determination to track down his disreputable father -- and brutality. Desperately...

Black Mike Sam Cassidy comes home to find himself in a series of tense confrontations. His father expects Sam to work for him at the local bank, and Sheriff Ben Faraday, for whom Sam worked the previous summer as deputy, is suffering from a terminal disease and wants Sam to become a deputy again. "Black Mike" Nickels wants to expand his use of public land and bring in more sheep, backed by guns. The Cattlemen's Association has vowed to stop Black...

Young Tristran Thorn, having lost his heart to the lovely but cold Victoria Forester, leaves the safe English town of Wall and sets out into a strange world on a quest to retrieve a fallen star he has promised to his beloved.

"Styron's most impressive performance. . . . Belongs on that small shelf reserved for American masterpieces." -Washington Post Book World Winner of the 1980 National Book Award, Sophie's Choice is William Styron's classic novel of love, survival, and regret, set in Brooklyn in the wake of the Second World War. The novel centers on three characters: Stingo, a sexually frustrated aspiring novelist; Nathan, his charismatic but violent Jewish neighbor;...

Adapted into the classic 1993 film starring Johnny Depp as Gilbert and Leonardo DiCaprio in his Academy Award-nominated role as Arnie, What's Eating Gilbert Grape is the touching and entertaining story of an unusual family that rises up to do the astonishing... Gilbert Grape is a 24-year-old grocery store clerk stuck in Endora, Iowa, where the population is 1,091 and shrinking. After the suicide of Gilbert's father, his family never recovered. Once...

An existential saga of working-class life in a British factory town and military service in the torrid jungles of the Far East from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe Key to the Door turns away from the boisterous pursuits of Arthur Seaton made infamous in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and focuses instead on the quieter rebellions of his older brother, Brian. Brian's childhood and adolescence in the grimy streets of Nottingham are...