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The Law of Life by Jack London

In this story, a poor old man is surrounded by unconscious people, his ungrateful sons. He is blind and the only he can do is hear because he has developed or polished his sense of hearing. He lives in the middle of the snow, in a vast field of snow. His sons are bound for a better place where to live with commodities they don't have in that snowy place. His sons were far from asking him how he felt, or what is worse they left him behind like a dog or a worthless object. He had no other thing to think that was the law of life. Nevertheless, he thought that because he did not have anybody to worry for him. If he had had someone to take good care about him he would have had those thoughts. It was logical he thought that way, there was no remedy. In the middle of the story it appears a reindeer who is also abandoned by his fellows, after that he is surrounded by the enemy, the wolves, just as the old man was surrounded by his enemy, loneliness. And they had no other option more than surrender and accept their fate.

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

In this children's story are developed the themes of love, generosity, and sympathy. It is about a gold statue of a prince who had had a great life because everything in his lifetime was happiness. However. it is not until he is placed in such a highness from where he could see all the misery which the town went through that he realized what it felt to be unhappy. It turns out that one day a swallow rested under his feet and felt drops of water falling over her, then she was about to leave when she saw that tears were running down the prince's cheeks. So she asked what happened to him and he told her that he was upset because of what was happening to people in the town. Nevertheless, he proposed himself to aid the people and so he asked the swallow to be his messenger. The swallow agreed and so it happened that people were assisted and became happy.

But if this can be contrasted with the prince appearing in The Mask of the Red Death by Poe, we can say that prince was thick-skinned because learning he that the people outside were suffering from a terrible illness, what he did was to lock himself and his fellows in the palace to protect themselves from that awful virus. That is, he did not care about others' misfortune, but he did not escape from death. Death came to him and his people to retaliate. And getting back to the Happy Prince, he probably never knew about matters outside until he stood out.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

This book contains a series of nice and entertaining stories told by 23 characters. Really good to read them.

Knight’s Tale

Palamon and Arcite both fall for Emily. They’re in prison when they see her and fall in love with her. They have a quarrel over that because one of them argued that he’d seen her first.

Arcite laments his release because he’d not see Emily again and that was his worry. He decides to go to Athens in disguise to get a job in which he could see Emily. He worked there for some years and is promoted.

Palamon escapes and hides in a groove all day to continue his way during night.

While Arcite rode in the woods he runs into Palamon.

Palamon heard the entire tale he was telling and got mad on hearing what Arcite was saying about Emily and so he defied Arcite to a duel. They agreed to fight and so they did, but Theseus watched them fight and stopped them. Palamon told Theseus all the truth.

Emily prayed Venus not to be Arcite’s wife nor Palamon’s. She said she was made to serve him and that she didn’t desire a man to be her partner. However, she said that if that was Venus’ will that she be given the man that desired her the most.

The day of the tournament arrives and they fight. Arcite is wounded so severely that he dies and Palamon ends up marrying Emily.

Miller’s tale

It is about a carpenter that is fooled by a guy that is good at astronomy. In this tale two boys fall in love with the carpenter’s wife, one manages to have a love affair with Alison the carpenter’s wife, and the other is scorned by Allison. The scorned guy is fooled by Alison when he kissed a backside instead of her lips. As a retaliatory, he goes again to Alison’s house to court her and when the backside of the carpenter is placed through a hole, Absalom burns it with a hot iron.

Reeve’s Tale

The reeve as a retaliatory responds with a tale about a miller who is tricked by two Cambridge’s students. These students intercourse with the miller’s wife and daughter as a revenge for what the miller had done to them. What the miller did was to release their horses so they had to go after them to catch them and that way he and his wife could steal their corn and wheat.

The Man of Law’s Tale

This tale refers to the divine love of a woman instead of the common human love. This woman goes through a series of cruelties over the time she was adrift in a small boat.

Cook’s Tale

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

She was a lusty woman who got married five times, three for acquiring richness and one for love. Her last marriage was with a clerk. She bragged of being old but with a youthful taste. She also regretted being old because she said that had taken her beauty away. She had a good shape.

Summoner’s Tale

The summoner tells a tale of a rogue friar who asked for money to the people of the village. This friar told them that he needed the money for the church and stuff needed in the church. Once he went to the house of a man who was sick and who had paid a lot of money to other friars to pray for him, but there hadn’t been any results. This sly friar told the sick man that if he gave plenty of money to him he would pray for him and that he would get well. Nonetheless, this sick man tricked the friar by telling him that he had something for the friar under his buttocks and that he should grab it with his hands. When the friar was groping the sick man’s buttocks, this man farted in the friar’s hands. The friar got angry and complained with the major of the village, but the major told him that he deserved it for he was cunning.

Clerics’ Tale

In this tale, the cleric tells about a king who was nagged by his people who asked him that when he would get married. He pleased these people by marrying a poor, humble, and modest girl. And, as it was the custom, the king tested his wife’s steadfastness. But he tested this poor girl many times that I could say this girl was quite fool because other girl or person would have sent him to hell for much testing. Nevertheless, this girl endured all this silly tests and in the end they lived happily. This is not all but with the people nobody will ever please their whims. They always insisted on the king to do what they wanted but they were scolded at the end for much insolence.

Merchant’s Tale

He tells of a knight who is sixty years old and decides to marry a woman, however, this woman should be young, he said. It happens that there is a squire who is in love with the knight’s wife. One day the knight goes blind and this girl agrees to meet with the squire in a garden the knight owned. The day they had agreed to meet, the knight told his wife to go to the garden to walk around. The squire was up on a tree and the girl was going to get a fruit from the tree for the knight, and asked the knight to bend down and serve her as a bench so she could climb up the tree. But what she really wanted was to be with the squire. When she was up on the tree she made love with the squire, but it happened that by divine power the knight recovered his sight and saw his wife making love with the squire, so he cried out and reproached his wife for what she was doing. But she denied everything and told the knight that he had imagined it, that she was not doing such a thing and in this manner she pulled the wool over the poor knight’s eyes. What a bitch!!!

Squire’s Tale

This tale is about a knight who one day goes to the palace of a king who was having a party for his daughter. This knight gives the king a ring, a sword, and a horse; all these things having certain magical power. The ring would allow the person who wore it to understand the animal’s language and be able to speak their language. One day the king’s daughter was walking by the woods and heard a falcon weep in sorrow. The falcon told the girl that she had been betrayed by his husband who one day saw another falcon and fell for that falcon leaving her adrift. This tale was left unfinished by Chaucer.

Franklin’s Tale

The Franklin tells us about a good knight who had married a beautiful and faithful girl. One day the knight traveled to England to receive a better rank. While he was in England his wife spent her day mourning him for she loved him so much that she could not stand her loneliness. During a walk she was having a squire who had been in love with her for a long time declared her his love. This girl promised this squire that if he removed all the rocks that were along the coast of Brittany, she would love him. She knew that this was impossible. The squire looked for a magician to make these rocks appear invisible so the girl he loved could be his. The squire told the girl that he had done as she wanted, but this girl never imagined this could be accomplished. She felt awful about it and she wished to die before being unfaithful. She told his husband everything. His husband, being a worthy knight, advised her to do what she had promised and so she did it. She met with the squire and told him that she had let his husband know the issue. The squire had mercy on her and let her go back to her house with her noble husband. The magician also forgave the squire’s debt. And this is how this tale ends.

Physician’s Tale

This tale is about a knight who had a beautiful girl for whom the judge of the town felt attracted sexually. This judge wanted with treachery to have this girl, but his father was unwilling to yield to the judge’s command. The knight cut her daughter’s head off and took it to the judge. And the judge ordered this knight be hanged, but the people did not do it for they knew about his wickedness. So the judge was imprisoned and killed himself. And the ones who had cooperated with him were hanged.

The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

The yeoman begins his tale by saying that he worked along the canon who was a crafty and scoundrel man. The canon deceived people by making them believe he was a philosopher and that he could combine certain metals and turn them into silver or other precious stone. First the canon performed a test for his victims and when he finished his work, these people felt happy and asked the canon to teach them how to do that. So the canon asked them to give him a good quantity of their money so that he would teach them how to create silver or other stones. And this is how the canon swindled them.

Oedipus by Sophocles

Oedupus was the son of Laios and Jocasta both king and queen of thebes. These monarchs were warned that his son would kill his father and marry his mother. so they decided to give him away to a shepherd to slay him, but this shepherd felt pity for him and gave him to another shepherd. The other shepherd offered him to the king and queen of Corinth. as days went by oedipus learned of the profecy and puzzled about it he left his home.