Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Biggest Bestsellers (30 page)

Everything Scarlett has treasured is gone. Rhett has become an angry drunk. Her children are terrified of her. Her parents have passed away, and the people of the Old South shun her. Melanie, the only friend who loved her unconditionally, is dead, and Ashley, who was always a little frail and dreamy, is a shell of his former self. At the close of the novel, after Rhett tells Scarlett he doesn’t give a damn about her anymore, our heroine, in denial to the bitter end, begins to scheme for a way to lure Rhett back.

When Samuel Peyton, a freed slave, returned from Europe a very rich man and engaged to a white woman, he quickly realized that he would not be welcomed by society. In a fit of anger and hurt, he imported a medieval castle, rebuilt it brick by brick, shut its doors, and lived the remainder of his life locked within those walls—an inauspicious beginning for the town that eventually would bear his name.

When it comes to Peyton Place, a fictional New England community in the 1930s, few things are as highly valued as image, status, and reputation. And practically everyone in
Peyton Place carries with them some secret, some dark, sordid mishap in their past, that they try to hide at all costs.

Take Constance MacKenzie. Her daughter, Allison, was conceived in a love affair with a married man, and although this man passed away when Allison was three years old, Constance lives in fear that the truth about her daughter’s illegitimate birth will one day be discovered.

Constance is a beautiful woman, but her guilt and remorse have kept her from remarrying; she prefers the role of the hardworking and sympathetic widow. As a result, Constance is cold, stern, and single-minded in her withdrawal from romance and its repercussions. Allison, on the other hand, is sensitive and thoughtful, full of aspirations, and doesn’t see the world through her mother’s grim eyes. At least not yet, anyway.

Allison’s closest friend is Selena Cross, a sensuous young girl from the “tar-paper shacks” who lives with her mother and her stepfather. Allison has no idea of the skeletons that lurk inside the closets of Peyton Place, until one day when she peers through the window into the Crosses’ kitchen and sees Selena’s stepfather, Lucas, tearing drunkenly at Selena’s blouse.

Soon after, Lucas is carted off to a hospital because of his alcoholism, and Selena finds romance and comfort with Ted Carter, a handsome and generous young man from an affluent family. Constance then hires Selena to work at her apparel store and hires Nellie, Selena’s mother, to clean her house.

When the principal of the local high school passes away, Leslie Harrington, the wealthiest, most powerful man in Peyton Place—and chairman of the school board—hires Tomas Makris to replace him. Makris is a handsome Greek man, Ivy
League educated, from New York. Constance immediately fears that he may have some connection to her past and dreads the presence of the new stranger in town. The moment he sees her, however, Makris falls in love and sets about wooing the unwilling Constance MacKenzie.

Two years later, Allison, who dreams of being a writer, lands a job at the local newspaper writing human-interest stories about the people and events that shape Peyton Place. By this time, Makris has made headway in his romancing of Constance. They’re secretly engaged, a fact that Makris keeps insisting Constance reveal to her daughter.

Meanwhile, Selena Cross visits Doc Swain because she’s discovered she is pregnant and knows that her stepfather, Lucas, is responsible. Abortions are illegal, but Doc Swain performs one anyway, believing himself to be saving Selena from a terrible situation. The procedure is a success, and soon afterward Doc Swain forces Lucas to leave town.

Bereft over her miserable existence, Nellie Cross hangs herself in Allison’s closet. Allison, having lashed out at Nellie for her harsh view of the people in Peyton Place, blames herself for Nellie’s death, but Doc Swain lies and says that Nellie Cross was seriously ill and committed suicide as a result.

Under cover of night, Lucas slinks back into town and attempts to rape Selena yet again. This time Selena murders him, and together she and her younger brother bury him in the sheep pen in their yard. Selena’s crime is soon discovered, and she is taken to jail.

Allison, now working as a reporter for a New York magazine, returns on assignment to cover the sensational trial of her old friend. During the testimony, Doc Swain, at the risk of destroying his career and possibly being sent to jail, reveals
the truth about Selena’s abortion. The jury acquits Selena. And Doc Swain, so admired for his brave actions, is excused for his behavior by the citizens of Peyton Place.

When Allison returns to Peyton Place, she, like her mother before her, is having an affair with a married man. Realizing she is on the verge of making the same mistakes her mother did, Allison sees that the only way to avoid the same fate is to break free of the love affair and finally come to peace with the cruelty, the kindness, and the ugliness of her hometown, Peyton Place.

Atticus Finch is a widowed lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. His daughter, Scout, her brother, Jem, and their friend Dill spend their summers relishing all the mischief their childhood can provide. They work on their tree house, playact some of their favorite stories, and, in a fit of boredom, decide to lure Boo Radley, the town bogeyman, out of his home.

As the school year nears its end, Scout and Jem discover that someone is leaving them treats and toys inside the knothole of the tree in front of the Radley place. They find chewing gum, Indian Head pennies, soap sculptures, and a broken watch. But as soon as the children begin leaving things themselves, the knothole is filled with cement. The children are saddened at losing the connection to Boo but gradually realize he is still reaching out to them in other understated ways.

One day at school, Scout is teased about her father’s defending the black man Tom Robinson. The town begins to ostracize the children, and Atticus pleads with Jem and Scout
not to argue or fight back. Tom Robinson is being accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, and Atticus, who believes the man is innocent, knows Robinson doesn’t stand a chance of getting a fair trial. Even his sister, Alexandra, thinks Atticus is shaming their family by taking on this case.

When the trial begins, Jem, Scout, and Dill all watch from the upstairs balcony, the only place blacks are allowed. Sure enough, even after Atticus does a convincing job of establishing Tom’s innocence, the jury finds Tom guilty. Atticus soon goes to work on an appeal, but Tom, sensing the unfairness of the system he’s up against, attempts to escape from prison, only to be shot and killed. Atticus tries to console Jem and Scout by suggesting that because the jury had taken a long time to reach their verdict, some “progress” on racial issues is being made.

Later that fall, Scout plays the role of a ham in a school pageant. Scout wears her costume home, and Jem walks along with her. The children are soon attacked by Bob Ewell, the man accused by Atticus of beating his daughter and lying about Tom Robinson’s rape. In the struggle, Jem’s arm is broken and he falls unconscious. Scout, because of her costume, can’t rightly tell what happens. When she arrives home, a strange man is carrying Jem inside the house, and Scout realizes the man is Boo and that he was the one who saved them from Bob Ewell.

In fact, Ewell had a knife and tried to stab Scout; only her costume protected her from injury. During the scuffle with Boo, Bob Ewell “fell” onto his knife and died almost instantly.

Tom Robison is dead, and so is Bob Ewell. It wasn’t pretty, but the children are wiser to the strange sort of justice alive in Maycomb, Alabama. In a final moment, when Scout walks Boo back to his house, she gets a glimpse of the view their
strange neighbor has always had and understands what Atticus has been harping on for so long, that we can understand others only by standing in their shoes.

It’s New York, 1945. The war is over and the world is brimming with optimism. When she arrives in the Big Apple, so is Anne Welles. Anne is beautiful, resourceful, and sincere, thrilled by even the simplest pleasures of living in the big city. She’s beautiful enough to be a model, but Anne Welles just wants to work in an office and soon lands a secretarial job at Bellamy and Bellows, one of the top theatrical firms in town.

Anne befriends Neely O’Hara (Scarlett’s granddaughter?), a talented young ingenue who stars in a two-bit vaudeville act and lives in Anne’s building, and Jennifer North, a buxom blonde with all the talent of a tin can.

Before you know it, Anne is enamored of Lyon Burke but is engaged to Allen Cooper, a dopey insurance salesman who turns out to be a multimillionaire; Jennifer has just dumped her Arabian prince boyfriend and has now set her sights on Tony Polar, the debonair lounge lizard; and Neely, soon to become a star in her own right, is engaged to her boyfriend, Mel Harris.

Neely becomes a huge star in Los Angeles and completely neglects Mel. She drinks and does drugs. He grows bored, and they divorce.

Jennifer learns that Tony has a form of mental retardation. His sister controls his image, his decisions, and his life, and she tells Jennifer that whatever Tony has, he’s likely to pass on to his children. Jennifer aborts their child, and they too divorce.

Anne never wanted to marry Allen but was engaged regardless. She calls it off and professes her love for Lyon Burke. Burke claims to love her, too, but won’t marry her until his career as a writer can support the two of them. When Anne’s mother passes away and leaves her the house in Lawrenceville, Burke offers Anne a compromise. He’ll marry her right away if they can live in this house. But Anne so desperately wants to stay away from her hometown that she denies Burke’s offer, and, brokenhearted, he leaves for England.

Jennifer visits Neely in Los Angeles and learns that she’s going to marry her fashion designer. Neely also fills Jennifer in on which “dolls” can help her sleep at night and which can help take the weight off after a pregnancy. If Jennifer is going to star in French art-house films (which she is), she’s going to have to look her best. It’s topless, at least.

With Lyon Burke out of the picture, Anne marries Kevin Gillmore, the owner of Gillmore Cosmetics. Anne finally attempts a career at modeling and becomes an overnight sensation. Her union with Gillmore is passionless and unsatisfying, and he reintroduces Anne to Burke as a test of her love—a test she fails miserably as she and Burke renew their romance.

Neely, on the other hand, is drinking heavily, addicted to the “dolls,” and losing money for the film studios; she has witnessed her husband kissing another man, missed her children’s birthdays and attempted suicide once.

In a fit of desperation, she begs Anne to let her come to New York and stay with her. Just as she’s poised to make her comeback, she loses her voice. Fearful and anxious, Neely slits her wrists. She survives, barely, and is committed to a sanitarium.

Jennifer then returns to the United States from her art-film
sojourn and becomes engaged to Senator Winston Adams. She thinks she’s finally found the right man, but when she’s diagnosed with breast cancer, she realizes he loves only her body. Jennifer opts to take her own life rather than lose a breast.

Anne concocts a scheme to help Burke buy out the agency and take on Neely, fresh from her stint in rehab, as their first major signing. The setup works for a while until Neely and Burke begin to have an affair. Anne is already pregnant, so instead of losing the marriage, she ignores the betrayal.

Neely demands that Burke divorce Anne, but he refuses to leave her because it might mean losing his daughter. The agency then signs a newer, younger sensation, Margie Parks, and Neely attempts suicide a third time when she realizes that Burke is having an affair with this younger actress.

During a New Year’s Eve party at their house, Anne witnesses Burke’s infidelity with Margie. Realizing that there will always be a line of Neely O’Haras and Margie Parkses, and steadied by her dependence on the “dolls,” Anne returns to the party understanding that in some strange and unfortunate way, she got everything she wanted.

And they all live unhappily ever after.

According to Sicilian tradition, no father can deny a request for a favor on the day of his daughter’s wedding, and so it is that Don Vito Corleone is meeting privately with guests who hope to receive the help and support of their Godfather. All the Don asks in return is their undying loyalty and friendship. One favor he won’t grant, however, is supporting Virgil “the Turk”
Sollozzo’s foray into drug trafficking. The Don’s denial of Sollozzo is what ultimately sets off “the five families war of 1945.”

Angry at the rejection of his business plan, Sollozzo arranges a hit on the Don. The Godfather is badly injured, and Sonny, the eldest son, rages out of control with bloodlust. Fredo, the middle child, was with the Don when the hit happened and is now shell-shocked, terrified, and useless. And Michael, the youngest son, wayward since birth, the only Corleone son who resisted the ways of his father, finds himself drawn into the fray.

When Sollozzo sends word that he wants a truce, Michael is the only member of the Corleone family that Sollozzo trusts not to try to kill him. Together with a crooked Irish cop, Sollozzo arranges a meeting with Michael in a secure Italian restaurant. After smuggling a gun into the restaurant, Michael kills them both. The blood has barely dried on the bistro floor when Michael is put on a boat and shipped to Sicily for his safety.

Later, Sonny gets word that Carlo Rizzi, his sister’s husband, is beating her again. Sonny flies off in a fit and heads straight for their apartment, only to be ambushed and brutally murdered at a tollbooth. The Don, wishing there to be no more violence, calls for a meeting of the five families of New York. At the meeting, the Don requests that Michael be allowed to return safely to the United States. To ensure Michael’s safety, the Don accedes to the wishes of the other dons and agrees to use his political influence to protect the drug trade.