The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag (By Jim Corbett) (published in 1948)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist, who was born and lived in the Terai region of the Himalayas. He knew the jungle inside out, and was an expert tracker. He was also much in demand for his hunting, but at some time in his life, he had made a vow to not kill for fun, but kill those animals who hunted humans. He is responsible for killing a number of leopards and tigers who had terrorised humans in the region (many of these animals had killed scores of humans). Jim Corbett is now immortalized with the naming of a famous Tiger Habitat, called the Jim Corbett Tiger National Park (having around 164 tigers) located in the same regions where he lived, and where animals are now protected. Corbett wrote a number of books based on the animals he killed, especially since he also wrote about the habitat, about the reasons as to why an animal turned into a man-eater (because it was unable to hunt its natural prey - old age, wounded in a fight, or injured by a bullet), and also about the society of that time.



This book about the chase of an animal famous as the man-eater of Rudraprayag in the year 1925-26, in which he was accompanied by Commissioner of Kumaon, Sir William Ibbotson. They were tracking an animal that had killed around 125 people, and was an elusive hunt, and was a pretty heavy task; compounded by the fact that the region in which the leopard roamed free was around 1300 square kilometers.
As usual Corbett describes the society around him, the superstitions and faiths of the villagers; something which varied drastically between daytime and night. At night, the terror of the leopard would ensure that people kept inside, scared of the leopard. You also realize the admiration with which Corbett held the nature and environment around him.

The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon (published in 1954)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist who lived in the region of Terai and Kumaon, in North India during the latter half of the 19th century, and through to the mid part of the 20th century. Being born in this region, he grew up with the forested and mountainous region and became very familiar with it. He loved the jungle, was very comfortable inside the forest, and could track down animals.
He became very famous as a hunter, but he was no there for the thrill of killing wild animals, instead killing those who became man-eaters. Some of the animals (typically tigers and leopards) that Jim Corbett killed were those who would terrorize villages, killing people as they moved around after dark. These animals had typically lost the ability to hunt their native prey, being either weak, or having suffered some wounds in battle, or having been shot and injured; in such a state, hunting humans was far easier than trying to kill their traditional prey. Villagers would call Jim Corbett to hunt down such animals, and he would track them down, sometimes alone (accompanied by his dog) and hunt them down.



These were the days before modern vehicles, so moving between places and through the forests would take a fair amount of time to do. This book is the last such book written by Corbett of his adventures, culminating in the last terrific tale of his quest to kill the Talla Des Man-Eater. The stories have vivid descriptions of the forest, as well as of the rural Indian societies of these remote villages and small towns.
Reading these books will almost give you the feel that you are along with him, and able to get inside the minds of the big killer cats, and you learn to appreciate these huge animals, as well as the reasons why they do need to be killed. You also get to read interesting tidbits such as the superstitions among the people inhabiting those areas.

Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett (published in 1944)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist born and brought up in India during the latter half of the 18th century, and lived up till the mid-1950's. He was also a colonel in the British Indian army, and also worked for the Railways. He is famous (immortalized to some extent) by the naming of one of the large Wildlife sanctuaries in Uttranchal (India), called Corbett National Park, the home of the Royal Bengal tiger (at current count, there are 164 tigers inside the Park).
Corbett was also much respected by the local population of the region, a mountainous and forested regions; since he was called upon by them to kill many of the man-eating tigers and leopards that roamed in the region. Typically, these were animals that were either old or had suffered injuries during fights or when they were shot, and were unable to kill their natural prey. As a result, they turned to hunting easier prey, such as humans and many of them killed tens or hundreds of humans. The terror cast by such cats was such that people would not move out of their homes during the night.



Corbett had become incredibly comfortable with the jungle, becoming a good tracker and lover of nature. This is when he vowed never to kill or hunt down animals for fun, instead only using his gun when required to kill man-eaters.
The book is an interesting collection of 10 such stories where Corbett tracked and shot down these man-eaters in the Kumaon and other regions. Many of these required much effort to track down these animals, including live baits to get them. As you read about these tracking efforts, you learn about how an animal turns to become a man-eater, and you also learn about the efforts involved in tracking down such a man-eater, especially since such a man-eater loses the natural shyness of humans and can easily attack the hunter. These are very interesting stories.

The Old Curiosity Shop (released in 1841), written by Charles Dickens

The Old Curiosity Shop was a novel released in serial form between 1840, and 1841, in Dickens's weekly serial called "Master Humphrey's Clock". In this serial, Dickens had also published another novel, called "Barnaby Rudge", and in addition to these 2 novels, there were short stories also published in the serial. This compilation was however something that was later abandoned by Dickens and now the novels and stories are also published separately. The serial was constructed such that Master Humphrey was describing the stories to a group of friends; however, this did not really work and was abandoned after only a couple of versions of the serial.
Out of the various stories by Dickens, the plot of this story was said to be weaker than the plot of his other stories, however, the level of feelings that the reader had for the main character (the girl called Nell in the story was unprecedented) and people felt really bad when the ending was disclosed.



The story is essentially that of Nell, a 14 year old girl, very good, but who meets all sorts of good and bad people in life, and the way her life changes as a result of meeting these people. She stays with her grandfather, who runs a small shop, a curiosity shop. Her grandfather wants to make sure that he is going to leave something behind for Nell in terms of an inheritance, and hence goes off for gambling every night; but as you would expect, he loses money, and eventually has to hand his shop over to an evil deformed hunchback, Daniel Quilp. Daniel finally takes possession of the shop and evicts Nell and her grandfather. This delivers a severe shock to Nell's grandfather, and Nell takes her grandfather away from it all to the Midlands of England, to live as poor people, as beggars.
However, her brother refuses to believe that their grandfather has not kept an inheritance for Nell, and wants to locate them, and for this purpose, he takes the help of his friend, the simple but good Dick Swiveller, and also the help of Quilp (who gets involved just to do more evil). Nell, in the meantime has suffered badly in terms of health but managed to get her grandfather away. By the time the good people (Kit, a friend of Nell, along with a couple of others) manage to find Nell and her grandfather, Nell has dies as a result of the bad health she was suffering from.

Nicholas Nickleby (published in 1839), written by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is more famous for the novels such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, novels that deal with life, with despair, with happy endings after struggle, and so on. At the same time, Charles Dickens is less known for the comedies he wrote, and he wrote a fair number of them such as "The Pickwick Papers" (his first novel), and "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby". The book, like his other books, was presented in serial form through 1838 and 1839, in a total of 19 serial releases (the length of each serial release was 32 pages). This book, although not so widely know as his other books, has received a fair amount of praise, and has been used for different adaptations for film, the stage, and for television multiple times. As for criticism, the book has a large number of characters, and the criticism of the book develops from the opinion that not sufficient space has been given by Dickens to develop the story of these characters.
The novel was written during the time that Dickens was writing Oliver Twist, and showed that there was a reversion back to comedy in the form of this novel.



The novel carries on with Dickens quest against social injustice of the British society of that time, and shows specifically the injustice against boys at a all-boys boarding school run by Wackford Squeers (and as mentioned by Dickens, this behavior seemed so realistic that Dickens was threatened by legal action by many people running boarding schools who felt that Dickens was portraying their boarding schools).
The story is about Nicholas Nickleby, an impulsive and given to anger young man, whose father died leaving the family penniless and leaving Nicholas responsible for his mother and sister. He has a rich uncle, Ralph, but Ralph does not like Nicholas, although he has a soft corner for Kate, the sister of Nicholas. Given that Ralph feels some responsibility for the family, he gets employment for Nicholas and Kate in other that they can support the family; and Nicholas gets employment at a Yorkshire boarding school for poor boys called "Dotheboys Hall" run by Wackford Squeers where the boys are badly mistreated, and Nicholas retaliates against this treatment.

The Pickwick Papers, By Charles Dickens (1837)

Charles Dickens is a very famous author of the Victorian era, being popular for his hard look at society, at the depths of human emotions; even his endings, good they may be, are bitter-sweet. He wrote a number of famous books such as "Great Expectations", "A tale of 2 cities", "Oliver Twist", "A Christmas Carol". Dickens started his career with the book - "The Pickwick Papers", published (like his many other books) as a serial.
Dickens was fairly young when he wrote the book, being all of 23 years old, and was invited to write a series, loosely connected stories which led to the creation of his first novel, "The Pickwick Papers", the full name being "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club". After publication of the book, there was some controversy with the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claiming that the book was based on her husband's idea, but this was something that Dickens denied.



The Pickwick Papers is a collection of stories, about the adventures of Esquire Mr. Samuel Pickwick. He is old, kind, and also the perpetual president of the Pickwick Club, and wants to explore more about life. He sets the club members (3 additional gentlemen Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, and Mr. Tracy Tupman, the additional members of the club) to travel to different areas of England and report on their findings. It is these adventures that provide the detail of the novel..
The meat of the novel is the additional characters that they meet, such as Joe (who eats a lot, and is always asleep), Job Trotter (who pretends to be sleep, but is very clever), Sam Weller (Mr. Pickwick's valet, who grew to be very popular), and Alfred Jingle (a actor, and also a cheat).

Dombey and Sons - by Charles Dickens (1848)

Charles Dickens is one of the most famous authors from the Victorian era, who wrote about the lives of the various sections of society, including the most oppressed, based on his own personal experiences as well. He wrote extensively on social reform, and some of his books such as 'Great Expectations', 'A tale of 2 cities', 'Oliver Twist' are all time favorites, and used in schools to teach students about English literature.
Dickens wrote a large number of books, with Dombey and Sons being a book that was published in monthly serial form, published between October 1846 and April 1848 (like many of his other books - the custom was to publish in a magazine monthly, and leave readers anticipating the next version). "Dombey and Sons" is the short form, the complete name of the book is "Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation". Dickens was by nature stuck in London, by this time, he had already become successful, and used to travel a lot, and this book was written for a fair amount of time in Lausanne, Switzerland. But he also traveled a fair amount during this time, and he was also writing another book called "The Battle of Life".



The story is about the life of a wealthy shipping merchant called Paul Dombey, who wants a son as a heir. He already has a daughter called Florence, whom he neglects; finally his wife gives birth to a son called Paul, but she dies in childbirth, and Paul remains sick throughout his very short life, dying when he is only six years old. There is no change in the attitude of Dombey towards his daughter, and he continues to neglect her even though she pines for the love from her father.
Things keep on moving, with Florence getting friendly to a young man called Walter Grey; however Water is sent off to the Barbados by the firm's manager called James Carker, since Carker believes that Walter can become a rival to him. Walter is soon presumed lost in a ship-wreck; Dombey also marries a widow called Edith Granger, but she really does not love him, and soon runs off with James Carker.
Like most other Dickens novel, the book runs through stages where some things go well such as the finding that Walter was alive, and his return; while Dombey realizes that Carker had caused the firm to go bankrupt. The book runs through things fast, with Walter marrying Florence, and they taking care of Dombey, and Dombey realizing the love for his daughter and his grandchildren.