Summary of Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist (Chapter 1 - 4)

Chapter 1: A Hungry Orphan

In a slum and poor town of The Kingdom of Great Britain, there was a woman who was giving a birth. The doctor and Sally tried to help her but he doubted that the baby would survive the process. The mother struggled so hard to let the baby out and she was in pain. It seemed like the woman didn’t have a husband and she was pregnant without knowing who’s the father of the child. She wished that she died after giving a birth. And true, after saw the baby boy she died. The baby boy was named Oliver Twist and he was alone after all. Then he was raised by a farmer named Mrs. Mann and Oliver was starving for food every day. He was sent to workhouse when he was old enough. One time when Oliver was eating with his friends, he was asked to ask some more food but then he was punished for that. Oliver was cost five pounds for everyone who wanted to take him home. Mr. Sowerberry took him home. He met Mr. Sowerberry’s worker who named Noah and he didn’t like him because he go promoted.

Chapter 2: Off to London

Noah was envy for the new position of Oliver. The maid of the house, Charlotte treated Oliver so bad. One day Noah tried to trigger Oliver’s anger so Oliver could attack him and he would get into trouble. Noah basically said that Oliver’s mother was a whore. Oliver couldn’t hold himself and he attacked Noah. Charlotte came to separate them from a fight. She and Mrs. Sowerberry beat him so hard.  Because of that he decided to go to city of London, looking for a new life. He totally walked from the house to the London. When he got there he was tired and starving. He met another person named Jack Dawnkins as known as Artful Dodger and he was brought by Dodger to his group which was led by Fagin. Oliver slept there and after he woke up and saw Fagin had a lot of treasure. A moment later, the group and Fagin played a strange game, it was actually a game about how to steal someone’s thing, it was a thief game! A girl named Nancy came to see Fagin and Oliver thought that she was a nice girl.

Chapter 3: Oliver meets Mr. Brownlow

Oliver followed his new friends among the street; Dodger said something about a guy who was looking books. Dodger and his friends left Oliver and went over the guy and stole his handkerchief away. Oliver realized that his new friends are bunch of thieves. They ran away and the guy accused that Oliver was the one who stole his handkerchief. Oliver was scared and ran away. People were trying to catch him up and the group pretended to catch him too. He was caught and brought to police station. An old man testified that it got nothing to do with Oliver. It was other boys who stole the handkerchief. Because Mr. Brownlow felt pity to Oliver when he saw Oliver was sick. Mr. Brownlow brought Oliver up to his house. He was in high fever and he was treated goodly in there. Mrs. Bedwin, the housekeeper took care of him so well.  The house gave him a really good food that he never tasted before. Oliver had the similar face of the person in Mr. Brownlow’s house. In other side, Fagin was questioning Dodger about Oliver and Dodger just told him what was happening. While Bill Sikes came in, people were worried about Oliver would tell who they were. So they planned to get Oliver back. It was difficult for them to come to police station, no matter what they’re a bunch of thieves. Oliver got so much better and one day Mr. Brownlow asking for a help to return  a book he borrowed from booksellers. Oliver wanted to do that besides he wanted to do something to pay back his goodness. A visitor of Mr. Brownlow said that Oliver would take his money away and wouldn’t return to Mr. Brownlow’s house anymore. But Mr. Brownlow had faith on him that he would return in 20 minutes. They waited hours but Oliver had not returned to Mr. Brownlow house.

Chapter 4: The Boy Is Kidnaped

Oliver did what Mr. Brownlow told but in the road he met his theft friends. He met Nancy and she was acting strange and claimed that he was her family. She claimed to everyone in public that Oliver knew her. Bill Sikes came and did the same thing, he asked Oliver to come home with him. Oliver shouted that he needed a help but they accused in public that Oliver just stole something. People from crowd believed that. He didn’t have a choice unless he went with them. He met Fagin once more.  They all checked Oliver’s pocket to take any money he had and he found the money from Mr. Brownlow. Oliver was mad and he jumped off and tried to escape. They tried to catch him again and he ran. Nancy stopped Bill to release his dog to catch Oliver because the dog could tear him apart. Nancy stopped Fagin to hit him up and she defended Oliver because he already got what he wanted. One of them, Charley gave Oliver a new suit to wear. He was locked down for a days and he was upset. But Charley and Dodger often visited him. They brain-washed him to became a total thief.

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Review of Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of someone’s journey of life through betrayed, loneliness, and love. It’s one of the best stories which Alexandre Dumas had created when he was alive. It represents the natural behavior of humans that when somebody else is in better condition, the jealousness grows inside and it ruins soul and mind. It happens in every culture around the world because the behavior is always planted inside. It wouldn’t be that easy if we let everything goes as God plans. Alexandre Dumas shows to the reader that something it’s worth to be revenged for. Dumas explains on the story that character of Edmond Dantes is the most perfect and kindest person in the world. He has the dark side which every normal people have.

Even though, the background of the story is the age when there was a war between Napoleon and The King of France, Dumas could still explore the settings so the readers can enjoy the atmosphere of the story. He shows on this story that love is not selfish. Love is the act when people put attention, caring, and sacrifice to the person he/she loved. Money is not everything when we have to deal with our past. The old people used to say “people will reap what the already sowed” is truly right. Something that very important is forgiven. What if people has the spirit and mind of forgiven, then the world would be a paradise.

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Summary of Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo (Chapter 9 - 14)

Chapter 9

Mysterious Death

Danglars became a rich man now because he owned a bank of his own. Dantes had a plan to set and trick him up for revenge. He pretended to be a rich guy who borrowed a lot of money from Danglars’s bank with a purpose to make him bankrupt. One day Dantes met Villefort’s abandoned son named Benedetto who became a criminal. Dantes had a plan for Benedetto to be a part of his tool to take a revenge on his enemies. Dantes gave him moneys and made him became a rich man named Andrea Calvacanti. He met with his old friends Caderousse. Caderousse was surprised because his friends became a rich man now. Caderousse said he had already sold the diamond which Dantes gave to him. After a while, Andrea would marry Danglar’s daughter, Eugenie. One morning, the Marquise, Valentine’s grandmother was worried because she wanted to give the money and legacy to Valentine. Meanwhile she was died because somebody poisoned her. Wedding ought to go on, Franz came to see his future wife but unfortunately he realized that Valentine’s grandfather was the one who killed Franz’s dad. It was a chance for Maximilian to marry valentine, but Valentine’s servant was poisoned to death too. They suspect there was a murder on their house. The doctor said that Valentine who did that but Villefort refused it.

Chapter 10

Blinded by Greed

Time passed Caderousse needed more money to fulfil his need. He asked Benedetto to give him more money but Benedetto refused it because he thought that giving money to Caderousse was never enough. Caderousse told Benedetto about his plan to steal money from Dantes. Benedetto came to Dantes about his enemy plan and he prepared for everything. One time when Caderousse broke Dante’s house inside he saw a priest who gave him a diamond which was actually Dantes pretended to be a priest. He pretend to ask Caderousse about who gave him an advice and plan how to break in his house. Caderousse said he was told by a criminal named Andrea Calvacanti which was Benedetto. He said that he would prevent the Andrea to marry Eugenie. Afterwards, Caderousse tried to kill him but Dantes failed it. He forced Caderousse to write everything about who was actually Benedetto to Danglars. Dantes let him go but one moment Benedetto killed him instead. Dantes revealed himself as real Edmond Dantes who Cadereousse betrayed years ago. Finally, Caderousse died and Benedetto ran away.

Chapter 11

Web of Revenge

One by one Dantes’s enemy went down. This was the turn for Fernand to pay what he did. Dantes made an accusation about Fernand betrayed a Greek leader named Ali Pasha. Haydee a young girl who lived with Dantes said that she was the daughter of Ali Pasha. She came to the court so she can give a testimony about it. The court proofed that Fernand was guilty. Albert son of Fernand was mad and check out that Dantes was the writer of the accusation and asked to fight him. So, Mercedes begged Dantes to not kill him. Mercedes claimed it was her fault because she wouldn’t wait Dantes. Dantes promised himself that he wouldn’t kill Albert no matter what. After all, they met up but instead of fighting, they were shaking hands each other and Albert understood everything. One day Fernand met Dantes and asked him what did he do to him. Dantes revealed himself once again and Fernand was shocked because recently he reaped what he sowed. After went home, Fernand was left by his family and he chose to kill himself. When the wedding of Andrea and Eugenia began, polices came up to them and caught Andrea and arrested him because he was a true criminal. Dantes kept taking the money of Danglars bank and made him bankrupt. He was so depressed and tried to go overseas. Dantes met Valentine and told her the way to show the murderer. He gave Valentine a pill to make her sleep looks like death even though she was buried inside a tomb. Everyone thought that she was really died. Then, everyone knew that the murderer was Heloise. While investigating Benedetto, Villefort felt so guilty and wanted to make everything right. When he got home he found Heloise and his lovely son died because they committed to suicide. One more time The Count revealed himself as Edmond Dantes. Villefort went crazy. Meanwhile, Dantes felt so bad because he took the revenge thing too far.

Chapter 12
The Power of Love

The revenge was totally completed and he took Maximilian to go with him to go back at their hometown. He met Mercedes one more time and they were crying and weeping because his son Albert joined the army. But Mercedes would be just holding on. He went to the place when he was locked on prison for really long time and realized it didn’t look like a prisoner anymore. He visited Roma and visited Danglers one more. He was a prisoner of a bandit called Luigi Vampa. They said that Danglers was so greedy even though for his own meal. Dantes revealed himself to Danglers that he was the guy who Danglers brought to prison. Danglers said he was sorry about everything. Afterwards, Dantes met Maximilian at the Isle of Monte Cristo. Dantes made Maximilian to drink a pill which was the same pill Dantes gave to Valentine. After Maximilian woke up he met the love of his life, Valentine. They were so happy meeting each other. At first, Dantes wanted Haydee to stay with Valentine but because Haydee insisted Dantes to stay with him, Dantes didn’t have a choice but to bring Haydee with him. The last time, Dantes left a note for Maximilian that Dantes left his riches and gave it to him. Dantes and Haydee were gone somewhere.

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