Dinah declines Seth's proposal, which he bears meekly, and Adam finishes work his father, a drunk absent without explanation, has neglected.

Dinah, a beautiful young Methodist woman, preaches an outdoor sermon to the villagers of Hayslope. Not ordained, but saintly, she speaks as one of them, about their commonplace struggles and temptations, and the solace of their redemption in Christ.

We meet Adam and Seth Bede, and the other carpenters in Mr. Burge's shop as their work day ends. The time is late 18th century, in the rural English Midlands. They tease and quarrel over a young female Methodist who will preach on the green that evening.

Anticipating the concept of "frenemy," Poe gives us vanity, self-righteousness, and terrible cruelty in revenge, as stone-hearted Montresor lures credulous Fortunato to his doom.

NOT recommended for children; Edgar Allan Poe's tale of increasing evil, alcoholism, and murder may haunt the listener as the cat haunted the protagonist.

  Tom learns how Injun Joe died, he and Huck search for treasure, and adjust to "respectability."  

Lost in gloom, almost without food, the only person Tom and Becky see after wandering many hours in the trackless cavern means death. Leaving the exhausted Becky, Tom at last sees sunlight through a passage to safety.

The Thatchers return, so Becky and Tom with a large group go on a picnic and cave exploration. Huck spies on dangerous men and averts an attack against an innocent woman. The day following the picnic, Tom and Becky are missing!

Tom & Huck set out to find treasure, first by digging, then looking into a haunted house, which holds danger and loot. What follows tests their courage still more...

Tom "reforms" for the sake of a gaudy uniform, falls ill for weeks, and returns to old habits with his chums. Muff Potter's trial approaches, Tom's testimony could keep him alive and free, but at risk of his own life from vengeful, violent Injun Joe.

Back at home, Tom shows uncanny insight about events that took place while he was supposedly "away." Aunt Polly questions his good nature, Becky Thatcher rejects and accepts him, and school comes to a resounding close for the summer.

Tom, Joe and Huck leave civilization behind, but notice a search for them. Tom spies on his family back home, but in spite of homesickness, storm, and trouble learning to smoke, the boys stay out until they have a chance to hear their own eulogies.

Witness of a murder makes a heavy burden for Tom and Huck. This brings Tom very low, Aunt Polly tries to cure him, and Tom doses the cat. Rejected in love, Tom turns to "piracy" with Huck and Joe.

Understanding between Becky and Tom is brief, driving Tom to consider life as an outlaw. When he and Huck visit the graveyard at midnight, drawbacks become all too clear.

At church, Tom's mind wanders, and he lets his "pinch bug" out of the box, to wander and make exciting friends. Monday Tom avoids school, fakes illness, talks with the outcast Huck Finn, and confesses. Punishment? To sit next to the admired new girl!

Tom tries for a little justice of his own, changes his affections, leads a small army, is unjustly punished, and wins a Bible by showing more scholarship than he actually has.

Tom tries to get the most out of life as a small boy in a small river town in Missouri before the Civil War, and his Aunt Polly tries to bring him up to responsible respectability, giving him the odious chore of whitewashing their board fence.

Unable to get Bartleby to leave his office, the owner of the law firm moves the office instead. Bartleby remains in the old building until removed by the landlord, and is sent to the Tombs, a Manhattan prison.

A phlegmatic lawyer who gets more business hires an additional copyist, or scrivener, in mid-19th century Manhattan. At first, work goes well, but Bartleby's quirks grow, upsetting the lawyer and his temperamental staff.

Returning from the Inner Station, Marlow falls ill after Kurtz dies. Recovering, he is compelled to carry Kurtz's writings back to Europe, and to bring sympathy to his bereft fiancee, trying hard not to speak ill of the dead.

The Russian trader explains Kurtz's overwhelming force of personality to Marlow. They find Kurtz desperately sick, but unwilling to leave the jungle and its people, and take him back on board the steamer regardless.

At the Inner Station, Marlow finds violence, death, uncanny echoes of Kurtz's presence, and an odd trader, who informs him that the people fought to keep Kurtz with them.

Marlow steams deeper into the jungle, to the Inner Station, growing more fascinated as he learns more of Kurtz, a man of remarkable abilities. Hunger follows the ship, whose crew are cannibals, with dense fog adding to the palpable tension.

Marlow travels to central Africa, finds death, callous indifference, anxiety, and avarice instead of vaunted civilizing ideals in his employer's stations.