It seems funny but I never seem to read the first book in a series. So I finally managed to find both of the first book in each series. It is always interesting to see how a series progresses.

I think Ms. Perry uses strong characters and also creates sympathy for some of the murderers, as well as the victims. You begin to feel an interest in the lives of the recurring characters who tend to make appearances in each of the books.

She uses the right amount of suspense to keep the reader's interest and keeps the endings a surprise.

My favorite books of hers in each series so far is:

"The Whitechapel Conspiracy." for Thomas Pitt.

"Slaves of Obsession," for Monk.

So, if you like mysteries you may like these series too.

          Dean Koontz is a master of his craft, though he took some time to get the recognition he deserves. I know the suspense genre is not for everyone, but I believe there is a story in his works that would fit any readers interests. Koontz has many books that cover the typical good vs. evil, yet his incredible ability to weave intricate tales hide the true intent until you least expect it. The thrills will keep you reading.

          I have quite a collection of Dean Koontz books and I never pass up the chance to grab one up I dont already own. After reading so many of his books I found it hard to read other authors material. The level of intensity that you will find in a Koontz novel is first rate, and second to none. There are so few writers that have such creativity and the ability to reach readers on a a very unique level. His characters are always exceptional, and some have grown to almost "cult" status with popular lives of their own, to be honest, I have one of his most popular characters "Odd Thomas" as a Myspace friend, as this character is so believable yet extraordinary. 

         I have only read one I didnt like, and that was due to the ending I didnt expect, but thats the beauty of his skill, what you think you are reading is only a small section of the web. His work rarely ends on the same path it starts and always leaves you hungry for more. Koontz novels usually dont get the promotion they deserve mostly because only few of them have been coverted in this "movie title" age of novels going hollywood. Koontz stopped selling the rights to his novels because the few he sold were not given the full focus they should have been and the movies did not portray the stories very well.

The focus of the festival is Canadian writers, of course, and they were given the spotlight. While many tents were for major publishing corporations from across North America, the tables were mostly covered in Canadian novels and new writers. The staff members were exceedingly helpful, having read nearly every book they were selling.

Virtually anybody could find something in the park to pique their interest. The remarkable kid's forum handed out balloons while providing parents with cheap, colourful books that could keep their young ones entertained and off the computer. The likewise remarkable array of reading tents boasted aspiring Canadian authors from all lots of life. The Pride tent had a full schedule of short story writers and novelists sampling their recent publications, while well-known writers for the Toronto Star held a panel discussion on sports and international affairs.

A stroll through the for-sale booths proved fruitful for many, as men and women toted shopping bags heavily laden with purchases. Everything from five-dollar novellas to fifty-dollar hard covers practically flew from the tables.

Magazines were a big feature, taking over an entire block of the park. Major publishers like Rogers sold subscriptions for practically nothing. Magazines like Elle, Seventeen, Canadian Living, and Home and Gardening were a big hit.

More intimately, many organizations were making their presence heard, with the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression taking donations and informing patrons of the journalists killed annually. Various religious organizations boasted their wares alongside poetry clubs and female literacy organizations, as well.

Not only were the books and magazines in abundance, there was a fantastic array of food available that bore a striking resemblance to a county fair or theme park. While there were mouth-watering smells wafting from corn-on-the-cob stands and funnel cake machines, the hit happened to be the Malaysian Murtabak stand.

Murtabak is an ethnic food resembling a crepe, but filled with curried meats and veggies. It tasted like a samosa and a crepe stuck together, and went deliciously with a hot chilli or coconut dipping sauce. Eight dollars bought one plateful, which was filling and perfectly spicy.

Entertainment abounded, as well, with a full stage erected in the middle of the park. Musicians and children's entertainment was scheduled throughout the day.
Word on the Street is always a grand success, but with the sun cooperating with the atmosphere, one couldn't help but have a perpetual smile plastered on their face.

Set in the tiny fictional village of Macondo, this novel portrays the rise and fall of the Buendia family. It takes the reader towards a journey of 100 years of rich family and cultural history. The author is a master of telling the story from different vantage points. Although the timeframe for the novel extends to well over a century, the events are not told chronologically but from different angles and time periods. The author is a Nobel Prize winner.

Midnight's Children (by Salman Rushdie)

This novel won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It is the only novel written by an Indian author that got on Time magazine's list of top 100 best English language novels in a span of 50 years. The credentials of this book should speak for themselves.

Breathing Lessons (by Anne Tyler)

"Breathing Lessons" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989. It is a story that tells the reality of married life and midlife crisis. One of the best modern literary artists, Anne Tyler also authored works such as Earthly Possessions and The Accidental Tourist. All those mentioned titles became smash hits.

Rabbit Is Rich (by John Updike)

This novel is the third part of Updike's "Rabbit series". Rabbit Is Rich was the lucky episode in the series that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1982. The story is about a former high school basketball star who now faces the challenges of modern society, ever struggling with various factors such as his wife's alcoholism, his uncontrolled libido, his son's misbehaviour, and dark memories from his past.

White Noise (by Don Delillo)

This novel is one of the best examples of postmodern literature. In fact, it is a standard "textbook" for college students taking up literature, primarily discussing postmodernism. Don Delillo's eighth novel, White Noise won the National Book Award in 1985. Film makers also attempted to release a film adaptation of the novel in 2006, but did not fully materialize.

Catch 22 (by Joseph Heller)

Considered as one of the greatest literary works in the post World War era, Catch 22 gained massive acclaim when it was first released in 1961. Today, it is a favorite among famous literary circles and subject of study for avid students of literature, sociology and politics. The story was set during the late stages of World War 2, focusing on a handful of U.S. air force soldiers. The novel is full of satire, political and social criticism, as well as many equally strong underlying themes. Disturbing, humorous, and witty to a full scale extent, this novel is definitely a must read!

Everything That Rises Must Converge (by Flannery O' Connor)

Unlike the other works mentioned here, this work is not a novel but a short story collection. It is, however, considered as an individual literary piece. "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is in fact the first short story in a collection of nine, thereby earning the title for the whole work. The author wrote these short stories during a long period of illness, and were published after her death. She writes with supreme taste, style, and technicality; the readers often find themselves grasping for and holding on to every word.

Kiran Desai "s THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS did all Indians proud by winning the prestigious literary award-The Booker Prize at the age of 35 .Anita won the 50,000 pound prize in her first attempt while her mom Anita Desai remained a three time nominee for the prize. Kiran's sweeping novel “The inheritance of Loss” is a heart stirring saga of a retired embittered judge living on the foothills of the Himalaya set against the backdrop of the Nepalese insurgency. The story finds immense resonance in the heart of every ordinary Indian family and its subtle, tender humour coupled with powerful political events leaves an indelible impression on the mind of every reader.

Desai, who constantly shuffles between her homes in New-York and India faced tough competition from a number of literary heavyweights like Sarah Waters' "The Night Watch," Edward St Aubyn's "Mother's Milk," Kate Grenville's "The Secret River," M.J. Hyland's "Carry Me Down" and Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men."

Previous youngest Woman Booker prize winner

The previous youngest winner in the prestigious Booker list was India's Arundhati Roy who won the prize at 36 for her hugely popular book “God of Small Things”. Arundhati's masterpiece was a “paradigm of poetry in prose” and encapsulated life in God's own country- Kerala.

Youngest Booker prize winner

The youngest Booker prize winner however was Ben Okri a Nigerian poet and Novelist who swept the award at the mere age of 32 for his empowering work “The Famished Road” .His work popularized the concept of fantasy literature where he writes eloquently of the mundane and the metaphysical. This is the story of a script child who never loses sight of his spirit world.

Booker prize winner of all times:

Salman Rushdie was named the Booker prize winner of all time for his work “Midnight's Children” .Rushdie the popular favorite was chosen from a shortlist of six which included works by works by JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Pat Barker, Peter Carey and JG Farrell. This sprawling novel won the booker prize in1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993.

Booker Facts

The prize founded in 1969 recognizes and rewards writers from Britain, Ireland, South Africa or a Commonwealth country. The winner is assured instant fame and the “bestseller tag” around the globe. The award sponsored by the futures brokers Man group is also at times identified by the controversies it invariably stirs. A number of readers and writers unequivocally feel that the winner appeals only to the erudite, elite literary academicians.

So for all of you confused about what to read…. considering one of the above mentioned novels could be a great way to imbibe the aromas of the worlds best literary masterpieces. .Do take time out for it.

To help young writers learn not only what makes good literature, but also how they can create it, here's a list of ten books a budding writer should read in high school. These are outstanding examples of certain writing principles that can shape young writers. (Whether or not they'll like these books, however, is another issue.)

For the purposes of this list, poetry and plays (sorry, Shakes) have been excluded. And watch out, a few minor spoilers ahead. If you need to know more about a work or its author, click on it for more info.

And now, in no particular order:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Illustrated Principle: Plot is good. (So are characters with delightfully-odd names.)

One of the most important things in a thrilling, emotional, splendiferous piece of literature is how attractive the title font is. Another is plot. This and other Dickens novels are great examples. Sure, sometimes he goes on too much about facial features or eccentric office decor, but you have to admit, this guy's got pretty awesome storylines.

In huge, soap-operatic strokes of genius, Dickens throws twists in one right after another-"Pip is in love! Pip is unloved! Pip is rich! Pip is still unloved! Wait, what? That guy was Estella's dad! Holy General Hospital!" No one will tie things (characters, mostly) together more neatly than Dickens. Also, this book can help you decide how much detail you like writing-just enough? Or so much that people wonder if you were paid by the word?

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Illustrated Principle: Universal Values = Bestseller and lots of prizes!!1!

Obviously, this is not the only book that features universal values. It is, however, one of the few widely-studied books in America that help the non-Asian majority understand Asians by putting readers smack dab in the head of a Chinese farmer.

Keep in mind that this book was published in 1931 when Americans were not exactly the most China-savvy people on earth. This novel connected with Americans and many others, featuring relatable issues like survival, poverty (see: Great Depression), self-esteem, generational differences, etc. To top it all off, this book showed Chinese life without racism, mockery, or bias.

Any book can have topics all cultures can relate to, but few books can teach one culture to begin to understand another.

The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
Illustrated Principle: You can't use metaphors as life preservers, even if you inflate ‘em.

For a good laugh, read some of Crane's metaphors and similes. Like "The regiment, involved like a cart involved in mud and muddle, started unevenly with many jolts and jerks." Or this one about a general in the middle of battle: "He looked to be much harassed. He had the appearance of a business man whose market is swinging up and down."

Okay, RBoC has its merits, and some of the metaphors are lovely ("The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer" is pretty charming). After reading this, however, young readers are bound to want to control their urge to compare everything to something as a way of adding description and "color."

(P.S.: Try some of Crane's other stuff; they're better. Like his poem "In The Desert.")

Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
Illustrated Principle: The nitty-gritty of humanity is a doubleplusgood topic.

Well, that isn't a very good description of this book's greatest quality, but this book is just inconceivably awesome, and not just because it gave us Newspeak, 2+2 = 5, and "rebel from the waist down." Its message is enduring; its internal and external dialogue expose the inner workings of man's mind; and its characters are sympathetic, but real and flawed. 1984 gives young writers a level of meaning and influence to aspire to and encourages them to find a chord of humanity to strike.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Illustrated Principle: She told me that he told her that structure is important.

E. Bronte's only novel is a wonder of literary construction. Not only is it separated into two halves (Heathcliff's arrival - Cathy Linton's birth and from then - Heathcliff's death), but the narration itself is often likened to a Matryoshka doll (see: Russian nesting doll). At its most complex, it's a guy telling us what several characters said according to a letter from Isabella Linton that was sent to the woman who told him the story. If you haven't read it, don't worry, it makes sense when you read it, but you might need to pause and regroup every once in a while.

WH shows young writers how important planning and structure is and how they can add to a story's irony, meaning and poetic justice. It's also amazing in other aspects (use of doubles, emotion, etc.) and gave us an awesome declaration of love ("I am Heathcliff!")

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Illustrated Principle: Narration can make or break a story.

Not only is One Flew a crazy story about crazy people, it's also shown to us through the eyes of a crazy person, Chief Bromden. Since he is a paranoid schizophrenic, Bromden can be an unreliable narrator, feeding us his hallucinations and actual hospital events with the same spoon. This novel could have been a surreal disaster, but Kesey balances the storyline and Bromden's perception perfectly, showing that selecting a "different" narrator to be original or avant garde doesn't work unless you back it up.

Kesey was enabled by the depth of his characters. Almost each character's voice, motives, background, etc. are so strongly defined that they shine through any fog Bromden's mind creates.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Illustrated Principle: Some green lights are more special than others.

Anyone who has studied this book for class will tell you, Gatsby's rich symbolism is mad important. Symbols are optional rungs that can make a story's ladder more complete and help it reach higher. They can add another level of meaning to a story.

Fitzgerald is particularly proficient at using symbolism. Other writers tend to use artificial, detached metaphors that seem contrived, but Fitzgerald's are natural to their setting and situation-two locations with different lifestyles; a light on the end of a dock; a billboard. Characters connect better with organic symbols, which makes stories flow nicely.

Black Boy, by Richard Wright
Illustrated Principle: Sometimes the best characters aren't from your imagination.

This is one of the best autobiographies found in high school curricula. Wright makes readers feel his pain and joy as he goes through hardships and occasional good fortune without being whiny, overdramatic, or unbelievable.

Any writers can use their own life story and emotions to make better stories. Even lives that are too "normal" or "boring" to be main plot material can be borrowed from to amplify certain emotions or add detail to stories. Look into your own life and actively find ways you can relate to your characters and their situations.

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Illustrated Principle: Omit needless words! (And others.)

Okay, so this isn't exactly a novel like the other books on this list, but it is a must-have for any writer-young, old, or uncomfortable-with-disclosing-their-age. Strunk and White encourage correct usage, consistent style, and strong sentences. This book helps writers become aware of their bad habits and fix them. It's a great reference to keep around the pen and pad, typewriter, or computadora. No writer should be without it!

If you haven't read all these books, now would be a great moment to update your "To Read" list. Of course, these are just some of the great curriculum books young writers can study. Pride and Prejudice, Candide, Fahrenheit 451, A Tale of Two Cities and others come to mind.

Just remember that reading all these books won't necessarily transform you magically into MegaWriter X or anything like that. After you finish a novel, there is still much work to do. If you read, find what you like about each book and figure out how to apply what you've learned to your writing, you just might come up with something great.

Good luck!

1. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
2. Ender's Game Series by Orson Scott Card
3. Black, Red and White Series by Ted Dekker
4. Eye of the Storm by Jack Higgins
5. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
6. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
7. Dracula by Bram Stoker
8. Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene
9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
10. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
11. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald
12. Call of the Wild by Jack London
13. The Sea-Wolf by Jack London
14. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16. Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
17. Dark Justice by Jack Higgins
18. The Fifth Profession by David Morrell
19. Midnight Runner by Jack Higgins
20. Desperate Measures by David Morrell
21. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
22. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
23. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
24. The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
25. Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Enjoy!

“And when ordinary fellows like you and me attempt to cope with their idiosyncrasies the result is bungling. Most women are moody and whimsical. This is some passing whim of your wife, due to some cause or causes which you and I needn't try to fathom."

          - The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Throughout the ages, across the nations, spanning languages and customs there is one commonality all man/womankind can agree on, men do things sometimes that do not make much sense. Authors love to tap into this shared experience, portraying the sillier side of masculinity. Let us discuss a certain type of male character used in fiction, the clueless man. What purpose does he serve? Why is he often tied to the empowerment of women? We will look at three pieces of literature in the twentieth century, defined (among other categorizations) as uneasy heroine pieces. These are The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. In each of these pieces there are uneasy heroines that are berated by “clueless men”. In examining these men and their role as catalyst for happiness within the heroine we will better understand the fictional device of the clueless man employed in each of these novels. We will observe each novel to define the clueless man inside and look at the similarities that span the three, catching any mode that might enlighten us to the clueless man as fictional device.

Looking at The Awakening we will examine Leonce Pontellier and his effect on Edna Pontellier as the clueless man. The quote that opened this paper resembles the attitude taken by the husband of our heroine. His approach in his dealings with Edna comes not from a husband, in the romantic sense of the word, but the point of view of one who is “...looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." (Chopin, 3) Leonce Pontellier objectifies his wife and places her in a definition of his own which is like a mother-woman. This is the role in which Edna caters to in the beginning of the novel. Her idealization of Madam Ratignole the true “mother-woman” shows her tendencies to conform to the social norm of a woman in her position. "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" (7) Leonce has defined in his mind an ideal woman of Edna's status the “Mother Woman”, as defined perfectly in this next passage.

"The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels." (10)

This is Leonce's ideal woman. He has had this in his mind since a man of his status began looking for a wife. The mother woman is what the society pressures young women to be. Partly because there is this ideal that the men of the time had, and the threat of the old maid forced them into this role. The Awakening is at its core about a woman moving past the role and into individuality. It is about leaving Mrs. Ratignole and moving toward Madam Rieze. The shift in this case was directed by her husband. If she is indeed awakened it is Leonce's fault that she was asleep. His ideal mother-woman personae that Edna has accepted into her psyche has kept her “asleep”. When she does begin to change Leonce is confused, clueless.

"It sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier's mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we would assume like a garment with which to appear before the world." ( 77)

Her change, her awakening, was as a mental imbalance to Leonce that is how foreign this idea of Edna leaving the bounds of his ideal is to him.

The unsupportive man and the neglectful man are also parts that Leonce plays. Steven T. Ryan, in his article “Depression and Chopin's The Awakening”, actually equates her previous life trying to play the Mother Woman as a “Hypomanic depressive” (254-255). I do not believe he is saying she actually was this, but her actions of an imprisoned woman resemble the same as a “bipolar II” disordered person. He goes on to comment about her actual “Awakening” referring again to the neglectful role Leonce has played in her life. “Edna is not destroyed because her sensuality is awakened but rather because the awareness of her sensuality emotionally resurrects her frustrated need for intimacy.” (259) Leonce does not create a marriage which acts as a venue for support, with intimacy or even artistic expression. He is ignorant to the creative passions that Edna is being awakened to. He is unaware and thus unsupportive of a change in his ideal woman. She is becoming the passionate artist that her personality caters to. These opinions are also not to say that Leonce did not love Edna, I feel he did, but that he was simply not the husband that she needed. The clueless man in this case is unsupportive, and unrecognizing of what his woman truly is outside of the ideal box he has placed her in. Because of this our Heroine is thrust, rather violently, toward happiness that has been denied her. She finally takes a figurative leap into the unknown taken the chances that this will be better than her current situation.

"The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander n abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water." (154)

The author does not give us the proof of her death at the end of the novel, but the fact that she took a swim, into a dangerous area, far from land, shows the heroine taking her identity out of her husband's hands and into her own. The fact that it had to be done in an unfortunate way is the tragedy of the novel. The clueless man not only pushed the heroine toward happiness but also away from himself, first into the arms of another and then into the sea.

Within the novel Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, our main character, Dick Diver, plays husband to our heroine Nicole diver. He had first met Nicole as a patient while he was a young practicing psychiatrist. Against advice from colleagues and social morays, the two blossomed into a relationship that ended in marriage. I use the term “ended” purposefully. While reading the early days of the relationship, the earliest moments, chronologically in the novel, we get a sense of true happiness, where Dick Diver is a decent person, even likeable. By the end of the novel the places of these two characters have switched; Dick has fallen and is now a shadow of the man he used to be. Conversely, Nicole has freed herself from the feelings of unhappiness and progressed, though tentatively, toward joy. She is uplifted at the same time Dick has fallen. Let us look at what part this clueless man has in his own downfall and the rise of our heroine.

Through Dick's false ideals of what a woman is to him, he has created, much like Leonce had, a box in which to place the definition of Nicole Diver into. Once in the box he knows how to react to her, he is able to care for her. But in making a box and opposing his will on the real Nicole to be like his ideal, he has made a fragile life. “"Nicole's world had fallen to pieces, but it was only a flimsy and scarcely created world." (143) When she begins to actually realize happiness may not be what she thought it was, her fragile world comes crashing down.

So what exactly is the ideal which Dick has tried to conform Nicole to? "You don't understand Nicole. You treat her always as a patient because she was once sick." (308) There is a doctor/patient model at work here, but this does not seem to encompass everything. The relapse Nicole had in the bathroom (112) expressed more than a hostility to her husband, there were ugly similarities between this scene and those that had caused her fragile state. She was yelling at her father as much as she was yelling at Dick Diver. The horrible past, which had included the molestation by a father, crept back into her psyche. She was yelling at Dick as if he were her father. This triggers in the audience a realization of the father figure that Dick truly is. Dick's idealized woman then is a daughter figure; one who acts like a patient, needing to be rescued and taken care of. In his article entitled, “Dick Diver and the Priest of Nemi” Erwin R. Steinberg, emphasizes this need to protect and heal, “Fitzgerald Recorded, as part of the summary of the plot, that the hero "marries her (the heroine) and is madly in love with her and entirely consecrated to completing her cure” (70). He rarely tires of playing the father figure because this is an ongoing process, she is never cured of any disease physically or mentally in the novel. This fatherly attraction completely explains the attraction he has with Rosemary, the young actress, in need of guidance, on the brink of adulthood. Dick"s self worth is tied up in what he does. "God, am I like the rest after all?" (Fitzgerald, 133) He understands his place in society and in a way looks down on his equals. His self worth is related to being a father to Nicole. His downfall begins when he believes he can be a father figure/lover to Rosemary as well. This clueless man has placed the women he adores in these closely defined boxes where he keeps them and depends upon them for self affirmation. When they move on, when they are unhappy as heroines get being placed in a box, they take with them the structures holding up Dick's self. He then begins to descend as Nicole rises.

Like The Awakening our heroine makes a conscious choice to not stay with the status quo and live in unhappiness but to brave the unknown in search for the things denied her by the idealization of a man pretending his wife is something she is not, a daughter figure. The flight, in this case happened not as dramatically as running into the see but was never-the-less the biggest step of Nicole's life.

"So delicately balanced was she between an old foothold that had always guaranteed her security, and the imminence of a leap from which she might alight changed in the very chemistry of blood and muscle, that she did not dare bring the matter into the true forefront of consciousness." (279)

It takes Nicole the entire rest of the novel to break free of the lifestyle she had known. She was not ruined, but free. This in fact would be the cause of Dick's fall, but she can hardly be blamed for him placing so much of his manhood on being a pseudo husband, one whom needs to be as a father. "There was some element of loneliness involved--so easy to be loved - so hard to love." (245) This quote elucidates us to this fact that this is where Dick gathers his defense of his actions from. It is easy to be loved as a father figure without the necessity of loving another. A father's main office is to supply, provide, protect, and be loved. The role of this clueless man is a father figure. He spurned on his wife toward happiness and again away from himself. His acting more as a father and less like a husband drove a delicate and fragile Nicole to the arms of another man, and when Dick's self worth is wrapped up in his ability to keep Nicole as a daughter who loves him, he descends and withers as a man. The clueless man pushes, by action or inaction, by force or neglect, the woman in his life to break free of the ideal he has forced her into and toward joy.

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov is obviously a very difficult text to analyze. This is how I will approach the text. I feel, given the utter unreliability of the narrator that lines and direct quotes do little good. I am taking this cue from an article entitled, “Humbert Humbert's Use of Catullus 58 in Lolita” by Gary R. Dyer. In it he examines how the “novel insists on making the reader suspend disbelief”, and “by putting aside the matter of the book's self-conscious artifice and taking Humbert's account at face value, we can by illuminating the narrative, illuminate the novel.” (2) We shall illuminate the narrative and stay away from direct quotes that may cause one to get off track in a number of ways. We may be able to form a clearer image of the characters if we focus on terminology and the periphery of the text. This is why you the reader will not see as many quotes as you have previously; I find it more helpful to discuss the key nouns and general happenings of the story as a whole.

Our main character, Humbert Humbert, is in “love” with a twelve year old girl named Delores, whom he refers to as Lolita. When speaking of Humbert Humbert as the clueless man in question, we need to understand the outcome of his actions. His Lolita feels, as all previous heroines in this paper, that the ideal woman Humbert Humbert has coined her as is not what she is. She rebels, like previous women, and flees the confines of his company. She disappears and eventually turns up again asking for money from him, she is pregnant and with another man. Humbert Humbert takes his aggression out on a man named Quilty, he murders him for stealing Lolita from him some time ago. Humbert Humbert writes his memoirs in a jail cell in which he soon dies. These are the stakes of being clueless in this novel.

What makes Humbert Humbert clueless? If we are indeed to take our lead from the previous novels we have studied it might be safe to assume it is his ideal of the perfect woman that commences his downfall. According to the memoirs, early in his life he had a crush on a beautiful young girl his age. But be fore they could consummate their relationship she was snatched away from him later to have died. This left a whole in Humbert Humbert one he has been trying to replace ever since. This is where the term, “nymphet” comes from. Humbert Humbert see sin young beautiful girls the one he was never able to have. He is “incarnating her in another”. These young nymphets spur on his obsessive tendencies, making him a pedophile. He idealizes the nymphet as the one thing missing, the one thing that will make him whole. He is dependent upon this obsession. There is no simple physiological explanation for his actions. This is not a lust, this is a mental obsession. It is a barrier in his psyche that prevents him from moving on. He “must have her”. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.” (Nobokov, 1) The opening lines of the novel place us in the obsessed and beautiful mind of Humbert Humbert. We get a sense of how the world is nothing without her; without his nymphet. Humbert Humbert cannot simply move on to another young girl. He sees his lost love in her and must be with her only. He goes so far as to marry Lolita's mother so that he may stay in her life.

The meat of the novel focuses on the relationship of man and woman. Though there is an age difference, it is not the father figure relationship demonstrated in the Divers. There is a captor and captive feel to them. Though Humbert Humbert feels, and writes, that she is madly in love with him, we get the sense that she is looking elsewhere, or at least has other opportunities that H.H. realizes as well.

“Oh, I had to keep a very sharp eye on Lo, little limp Lo! Owing perhaps to constant amorous exercise, she radiated, despite her childish appearance, some special languorous glow which threw garage fellows, hotel pages, vacationists … into fits of concupiscence which might have tickled my pride, had it not incensed my jealousy.” (159).

The appearance of Quilty following them is the first sense we get that H.H. is losing his grip on Lolita. There is another presence that threatens the relationship. H.H. would not have been threatened had he believed, without a doubt, in the strength of the relationship. One could argue Quilty is a manifestation of his imagination here to exemplify the loosening grasp on Lolita.

Like the heroines of The Awakening and Tender is the Night, Lolita, we can assume, begins to resent her cage of ideals that H.H. has placed her in. He is making Lolita into the young girl he never had. This will push her toward something better, something where she can be free to be Lolita, and not the shadow of some former love. Lolita takes flight and turns up missing. H.H. is sure she has left with Quilty.

The domineering spirit H.H. possesses inhibits the true identity of Lolita. We purposefully are kept at a distance from Lolita in the novel. We only know of her through the eyes of the narrator, H.H. As with the other novels discussed here, the true identity of the woman is suppressed to fill the identity of the ideal the man has. This causes the heroine to rebel against her rules and find a place where she can be free, be this, another man, the sea, divorced, or just away from her clueless man. H. H., even at the end of his life, places Lolita in the nymphet role, for he writes his memoirs regarding her as if it were still going on. “By telling his story Humbert TRIES to transcend not only the loss of the nymphet to maturity and marriage, but her death and his own death. He writes that his memoir may be published only after Lolita has died.” (Dyer, 12)

From these texts we are able to better define the clueless man device used in these cases of fiction. From The Awakening we learn that the clueless man is able to passively neglect his wife. His actions do not have to be tangible. The clueless man, in this case, imprisoned the heroine in a figurative construct of ideals. His “perfect” woman (in quotes because they may not be perfect to universal standards) does not want to be the woman he has pressed upon her. She rebels. In Tender is the Night we also see a rebellion, though much slower than and not as dramatic as throwing oneself into a sea. The revolt is simple, a run for happiness and joy. Nicole sees a chance in a new man though it means leaving the security of what she has known. This clueless man also struggles with an ideal. In this case, Dick Diver invests more of himself into the ideal of this daughter like figure that he can protect. He would always have played the doctor and father to her if she would have let him.

Lolita acts as an experiment to that which occurs when the ideal and the stakes become dangerous. Humbert Humbert idealizes a lost love, “incarnating her in another”. This other is Lolita a young girl who is the victim of obsession. This situation acts a little more like a prison, here; the victim has little power physically in this relationship. Lolita acts as a more concrete version of what the other Heroines progress through. She too rebels and runs away. The interesting thing about it is we get a glimpse of life after she made the choice to move on. She is not nearly as happy as she could be. This is a jolt for those who love the romantic questions that follow the reading of novels such as The Awakening and Tender is the Night. Lolita does not allow for guess work. Nobokov hits us twice with Lolita's decision to stay away from the man whose false ideals had imprisoned her. We see that life was not glamorous, star studded, or falsely optimistic in anyway, however, she makes the choice to live free as an individual and accepted for the woman she is, not the nymphet Humbert Humbert wanted her to be. This is what truly makes the uneasy heroine heroic.

The clueless man is used as a way to trap the protagonist. His idealization of what a woman should be causes them to rebel and become who they truly are, this doesn't always mean an easy life, but it is a free one. The clueless man does not have one idea about a woman, or even a bad idea in some cases, Mrs. Ratignole was very content with playing the “Mother Woman” part, but it is when men try to place a woman in a box that creates the conflict. Placing any man's idea of a woman on a woman will be inaccurate. Women are as different from other women as they are from men.

When fiction uses the clueless man device to make a point, it brings with it many notions of gender, masculinity and ties in a universal element everyone can relate to. Real life men may be able to take away lessons from these novels. Do not place women in a box, they will rebel, maybe not with suicide or affairs, it may be as subtle as unhappiness. Understanding how these fictional devices work exactly and what makes them so popular taps into what we bring to the table as a reader. It taps in to the outside “texts” that we hold in the back of our minds when understanding literature. It may even help to change some of those “texts”.

The classic work seems to imply that the role of women during those times is to become active yet servile individuals in society, and by establishing connections, they put themselves in a position where they can be noticed by people from the higher class and eventually become married to one of them. Jane Austen places importance on love, but it is not the single element that will create a perfect marriage and happiness in settlement. Money and social position are also two important characteristics that should be found in a gentleman, thus by having those two traits, a lady can be sure that he can give her a secure lifestyle and a considerable place in the world.

The distribution of wealth in those days is interesting. A normal family will engage in trade for an entire lifetime and build a long lasting income. If fortune smiles upon the father, he will be able to lay up some wealth for the next generation. Upon death, the firstborn male child will receive a monetary inheritance from his father, and he will take charge of all the family property as well  practically becoming the new father. This type of scenario is very unfortunate for families with only female children exclusively. When there is no male heir present, the female siblings are then forced to try their luck; in the outside world, hoping to find an eligible bachelor with considerable wealth and social position so that they can live a secure life in the future.