Beyond

Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham's novels. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.

Today, we are horrified at the idea that a medical experiment could be performed on someone without consent. But, as Gere shows, that represents a relatively recent shift: for more than two centuries, from the birth of utilitarianism in the eighteenth century, the doctrine of the greater good held sway. Showing that utilitarianism is based in the idea that humans are motivated only by pain and pleasure, Gere cautions that that greater good thinking is on the upswing again today and that the lesson of history is in imminent danger of being lost.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written a masterpiece: The colorful and epic saga about the Columbian Buendía family and the city they built, Macondo.

The genius manuscript of a unknown author makes the young poet Hildegunst von Mythennetz seek out the city of Buchhaim. Because if there's somewhere he can find the mysterious author, it's in the catacombes of this book-crazy city. Entering the city is like entering a giant library and he is drawn into a place where reading is actually dangerous.