Editorial International

Clara Amedroz is the only surviving child of the elderly squire of Belton Castle in Somersetshire. At twenty-five, she is old for an unmarried woman. Her father's income and savings have been dissipated to pay for the extravagances of her brother, who subsequently committed suicide. Since her father has no living sons, his estate, which is entailed, will pass upon his death to a distant cousin, Will Belton. Despite her poor prospects, she has two eligible suitors. Within four days of making her acquaintance, Will Belton proposes marriage to her. Belton is warm-hearted, kind, and generous, and these qualities make a strong impression on Clara. However, she believes herself in love with Captain Frederic Aylmer, although he has given no clear signs of feeling that way toward her. Aylmer is impeccable in his manners, smooth, urbane, well-read, and a member of Parliament; compared to him, Belton is awkward and unpolished. Clara rejects Belton's offer, urging him to regard her as a sister. Not long thereafter, Aylmer proposes to her, and she eagerly accepts. However, her happiness is short-lived. Her new fianc proves shallow and cold, more concerned with his own comfort than with her happiness. Moreover, he expects her to subject herself to his domineering mother. Mr. Amedroz dies; and although Belton offers to allow Clara to remain at Belton Castle, she goes to live with the Aylmer family in Yorkshire. Lady Aylmer, who wants her son to marry money or a title, exerts herself to make Clara miserable there; and Captain Aylmer offers no support to his betrothed. For Clara, the final straw comes when Lady Aylmer demands that she sever her ties with a friend. Mrs. Askerton, Lady Aylmer has learned, left an abusive drunken husband in India and lived with Colonel Askerton for several years before the death of her husband freed her to marry him. Clara is duly appalled by her friend's past immorality, but cannot bring herself to cast off someone who has come to depend on her friendship. Pressed relentlessly on the subject by Lady Aylmer, she declares an end to her engagement and returns to Somersetshire, where she accepts the hospitality of the Askertons. Will Belton has never ceased to show his love for Clara, and she realises that he is worthy of her love. However, she believes that it would be wrong to transfer her affection from one man to another. Only after Mrs. Askerton and Will's sister Mary Belton persuade her that it would be unjust to withhold her affection from Will can she bring herself to put aside her scruples and accept him. Marital bliss ensues.

Jim (his surname is never disclosed), a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. The court strips him of his navigation command certificate for his dereliction of duty. Jim is angry with himself, both for his moment of weakness, and for missing an opportunity to be a 'hero'. At the trial, he meets Charles Marlow, a sea captain, who in spite of his initial misgivings over what he sees as Jim's moral unsoundness, comes to befriend him, for he is "one of us". Marlow later finds Jim work as a ship chandler's clerk. Jim tries to remain incognito, but whenever the opprobrium of the Patna incident catches up with him, he abandons his place and moves further east. Later, Marlow's friend Stein suggests placing Jim as his factor in Patusan, a remote inland settlement with a mixed Malay and Bugis population, where Jim's past can remain hidden. While living on the island he acquires the title 'Tuan' ('Lord'). 1] Here, Jim wins the respect of the people and becomes their leader by relieving them from the predations of the bandit Sherif Ali and protecting them from the corrupt local Malay chief, Rajah Tunku Allang. Jim wins the love of Jewel, a woman of mixed race, and is "satisfied... nearly". The end comes a few years later, when the town is attacked by the marauder "Gentleman" Brown. Although Brown and his gang are driven off, Dain Waris, the son of the leader of the Bugis community, is slain. Jim returns to Doramin, the Bugis leader, and willingly takes a fatal bullet in the chest from him as retribution for the death of his son. Marlow is also the narrator of three of Conrad's other works: Heart of Darkness, Youth, and Chance.

he Possessed is among the best, yet complex books ever written by Dostoevsky. It has a deep political embedding of Russian, merging it with pure realism, exposing nihilism, portraying existentialism, plus dark atrocities, among them the murder of Shatov; the brother of Darya Pavlovna, along with Captain Lebyadkin, with his sister Marya Timofyevna, their elderly servant, as well as the death of Stepan Trofimovitch, Varvara Petrovna old friend for over twenty years. The book further illustrates the murder of Fedka: the runaway convict; the suicide of Kirillov; the death of Lizaveta, Marya Ignatyevna, and her toddler. It exposes the movement of an underground Secret Society plotted by Pyotr Stepanovitch, which aims to bring havoc, moral decadence, undermining all foundations, thus destroying the society with its principles and create social disorder in Russia with the concept of a guiding idea to overtake the present government under the rule of AndreyAntonovitch and his wife Yulia Mihailovna during the author's time, and the demise of Nikolay stravrogin Vsyevolodovitch; the son of Varvara Petrovna, along with his mental instability, and countless love affairs with Lizaveta Nikolaevna, Darya, and Shatov's wife Marya Ignatyevna, despite being married to the crippled, ugly Marya. The novel is set in a small town of Skvoreshniki, and is narrated by Govorov; who is both a respected member of the society plus a journalist, and follows to tell the story as it is written from the Biography of Stepan Trofimovitch, who is an ardent thinker, poet, and philosopher. From his narration, we are introduced to the relationship between Stephan and Varvara Petrovna, and it leads us to the development of Nikolay stravrogin Vsyevolodovitch, who is the central character in the book, and who further is home schooled by Stepan, until he reaches the age of joining the army. As it is with Dostoevsky novels, the Possessed seeks to explore existentialism; the human condition as to why we live, and the ideals that guide us. It further brings out the concept of redemption that perturbs the human conscience after committing an evil deed. The author analyses the self, and whether we have a prime idea for our existence.images (2) Unfolding Events in the Possessed/ the Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky Stepan Trofimovitch, Pyotr Stepanovitch's father, who they are not in good terms, is a devoted friend to Varvara Petrovna; who has a notable reputation in Skvoreshniki and throughout Russia, and is separated from her husband General Stavrogin, a close friend to the governor. The two have a close relationship, and Stephan wishes to marry Varvara, but he never suggests anything to her. In the end their relationship turns out disastrous, and their friendship ends as Stephan leaves Skvoreshniki, only to fall sick in Spasov, where he is nursed by Sofya Matveyevna, until Varvara comes for him, but dies three days later. Varvara Petrovna carries his body back to Skvoreshniki, where it is buried in the precincts of a church covered with a marble slab. Pyotr Stepanovitch, Tolkatchenko, Shigalov, Lyamshin, Erkel, Liputin, and Virginsky, who are all members of the Quintet of the Secret Society, plot to kill Shatov; who they believe will turn traitor even after his wife Marie returning to him to give birth to a baby that belongs to Stavrogin. However Shigalov: an inherent thinker, walks out at the moment of the crime with his own conviction that their deed is nothing more than a personal vendetta rather than a threat to their Secret Society, and that it is no different from acts done by shallow rulers in the past, who did not have a sharp mental faculty to reason out things.