Sommari di alcune opere inglesi

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Download:	49
Data:	30.07.2001
Numero di pagine:	3
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

INGLESE……LETTERATURA

ROBINSON CRUSOE: the summary
Robinson is an ambitious young man who leaves his family to indulge his desire for sea voyages.
A first shipwreck and a period of slavery don’t put him off. Rescued by a Portoguese ship, he goes to Brazil where he becomes a rich planter. But during a voyage to Guinea to buy black slaves for his friends’ plantations he is shipwrecked on a desert island off the mouth of Orinoco River where he remains for about 28 years . In this period, with the help of a few things saved from the shipwreck, he succeeds in making a tolerable life for himself. He domesticates some animals and one of the cannibals who occasionally land on the island becomes his faithful servant, Friday.
Eventually a ship of mutineers lands on the island. Crusoe rescues its officers and is taken back to England.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: the summary
It purports to be a “true” travel account by the ship’s doctor Lemuel Gulliver with a maps of the places visited and full particulars about Gulliver’s family life. It includes realistic details to make the account as true-to-life as possible, such as a letter by Gulliver to a cousin who had persuaded him to publish his papers. This minute realism contrasts sharply with the improbable situations Gulliver meets on his travels. The first voyage takes him to a land inhabited by tiny man, the Lilliputians. The second voyage takes Gulliver to a place inhabited by giants, Brobdingnag. The third voyage takes Gulliver to various country, the most important of which is the isle of Laputa where the inabitants are of normal size but distorted with one eye to the sky and one eye looking inwardly and so unable to look at pratical daily life. In the last book Gulliver reaches the country of the Houyhunhnms, a rational and organized society ruled by horses, where human beings are represented by the bestial Yahoos.

PAMELA: the summary
Pamela is a chamber maid to a kind lady but, when her employer dies, she is pursued by her son. As a consequence she experiences many misadventures. Her new master separates her from her friends, imprisions her and the openly offers to make her his mistress. After Pamela’s indignant refusals, he tries to rape her and then offers mock marriage. Just when Pamela’s situation seems tragic, there is a twist in the novel. Her master who has played the part of the villian so far, suddenly realises he is in fact in love with her. Pamela returns his love but still rejects him because of the difference in social class between them. Later she accepts him and ha makes his peers accept her as his wife.

TOM JONES: the summary
Mysteriously placed in the bed of Mr Allworthy, Tom is found as a new-born baby by that good country gentleman and is brought up as his ward together with hi nephew Blifil. Tom’s exuberant and passionate nature often gives Blifil the opportunity to speak ill of him and thereby to alienate Mr Allworthy’s affection. His evil machinations result in Tom’s expulsion from home and his separation from Sophia Western, the girl he is deeply in love with. The second part of the book shows the adventures on the road of most of the characters of the novel. Tom leaves home first to join the army the to go to London. Sophia, who reciprocates Tom’s love in spite of his social position, runs away from home to avoid marriage to Blifil. Squire Western pursues his daughter. The final part of the novel is set in London where all the major characters congregate and where Tom’s true identity is finally discovered. Tom is Mr Allworthy’s sister’s illegitimate son and therefore half brother of Blifil. At the end, nothing can prevent Tom from marrying his beloved Sophia.