Such mannerisms would be less worthy of remark, were it not that in Great Expectations, as in no other of Dickens' novels, hands serve as a leitmotif of plot and theme -- a kind of unifying symbol or natural metaphor for the book's complex of human interrelationships and the values and attitudes that motivate them.

The issue of women's right to academic education is central to the book's plot.

In the frame of the book's plot, Wimsey's diplomatic obligations serve as a plot device to keep him away from Britain, and leave Harriet on her own for most of the book, to try to resolve the mystery at Oxford without his help.

A ( fictional ) encounter between Gersonides and Pope Clement VI at Avignon during the Black Death is a major element in the book's plot.

He furthermore noted that there was a " disconcerting randomness about the introduction of the supernatural " into the book's plot, with the supernatural elements simply appearing without having been worked into a wider world universe.

Despite these obstacles, readers and commentators have reached a broad consensus about the book's central cast of characters and, to a lesser degree, its plot.

Given the book's fluid and changeable approach to plot and characters, a definitive, critically agreed-upon plot synopsis remains elusive ( see Critical response and themes: Difficulties of plot summary below ).

The challenge of compiling a definitive synopsis of Finnegans Wake lies not only in the opacity of the book's language, but also in the radical approach to plot which Joyce employed.

" Critics have seen a precedent for the book's plot presentation in Laurence Sterne's famously digressive The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, with Thomas Keymer stating that " Tristram Shandy was a natural touchstone for James Joyce as he explained his attempt " to build many planes of narrative with a single esthetic purpose " in Finnegans Wake ".

* Chris Ryans book, Strike Back, centred the first part of the book's plot around an SAS raid on a site where Terry Waite was being held in an attempt to free him and the two other hostages.

* At the conclusion of Umberto Eco's " The Name of the Rose ", the unique Medieval library which is at the center of the book's plot is burned and totally destroyed.

The book's plot follows the game's only loosely ; for example, in the game, the main character's lack of a name is a sign of his incomplete state, and a source of protection in being anonymous.

Doctor Livesey, a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's " Treasure Island ", is mentioned as having been in the Battle of Fontenoy some years before the book's plot takes place, and there are several references to his having been there throughout the book.

The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and the foundation for criticism of the book's " lowness.

The book's plot portrays Mrs. Hudson, the widow, moving to Europe after her daughter, Joyce, is married.

Ainsworth used Turpin as a plot device, describing him in a manner that makes him more lively than the book's other characters.

Large parts of the plot of the mystery novel " The Snowman-particularly the book's final climatic scenes-are set in Holmenkollen, both the residential area and the ski jump.

The book's plot is based on real-life events that occurred in the 1980s and is classified as non-fiction.

Contemporary reviews, however, were mixed ; while appreciating Faulkner's writing style, they stressed the book's seeming lack of consistency and its loose plot.

The book's plot, about super children with immeasurably high intelligence who have to hide their youth, and work from hiding in order to get along in the less-intelligent world, has been credited — though never officially confirmed — with providing the inspiration for the X-Men comic book series.

In fact, the new regime seen in full bloom in the book's 2086 came into being in direct reaction to Scudder's attempt to impose Puritanical mores on the entire American society — for example, the complete abolition of the nudity taboo, which is an important aspect of the book's plot.

During scenes in which Henry draws in his bedroom, Knight used his earlier acquired ventriloquism talents for comical conversations with a hand-puppet version of his comic book's main character " Cosmic Cow.

The book's writing was primarily influenced by the subprime mortgage crises of 2007 to 2009 ; and draws upon the pattern or the fallibility of capitalism.

Although the book's students were named after children from Hillside and there is a presumably autobiographical character named " Louis the Yard Teacher ," Sachar has said that he draws very little from personal experience, explaining that ".... my personal experiences are kind of boring.

Representatives of Harvard University Press, which is publishing the book this month of April, recognize and freely acknowledge that they invited such reaction by allowing Life magazine to print an excerpt from the book in advance of the book's publication date.

A passage in Voltaire's Candide has the book's eponymous main character meet the deposed Ahmed III while on a ship from Venice to Constantinople.

Scholars agree that the Deuteronomists ' hand can be seen in Judges through the book's cyclical nature: the Israelites fall into idolatry, God punishes them for their sins with oppression by foreign peoples, the Israelites cry out to God for help, and God sends a judge to deliver them from the foreign oppression.

The book's style was innovative, combining naturalism with gothic melodrama, and broke new ground in being written from an intensely first-person female perspective.

Although mythical elements are not so prominent in Exodus as in Genesis, the echoes of ancient legends are crucial to understanding the book's origins and purpose: for example, the story of the infant Moses's salvation from the Nile has its basis in an earlier legend of king Sargon, while the story of the parting of the Red Sea trades on Mesopotamian creation mythology.

Although some scholars consider the letter a pseudonymous work written between the end of the 1st century and the first quarter of the 2nd century, arguing from the references to the apostles, tradition ; and the book's competent Greek style, conservative scholars date it between 66 to 90.

IBM veterans from the PC project disputed the book's description of events, and Microsoft described it as " one-sided and inaccurate.

His prewar writing career was not mentioned in the book's publicity, and people were allowed to assume that it was a first novel from a previously unknown writer.

Kahane claimed in the book's preface that one of his cellmates was a Bedouin from the Negev about to be released after serving an eighteen-year prison sentence for the rape and murder of a Jewish girl.

There is also an evident consensus among popular authors that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each book's publication, from the Apollo moon landings, through the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, to the events of 9 / 11: this ' movable feast ' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.

Women's speed skating was not very high-profile ; in Skøytesportens stjerner ( Stars of the skating sport ), a Norwegian work from 1971, no female skaters are mentioned on the book's nearly 200 pages, though they had by then competed for nearly 30 years.

The book's title comes from the bell-shaped normal distribution of intelligence quotient ( IQ ) scores in a population.

Jensen also criticized Gould for concentrating on long-disproven arguments ( noting that 71 % of the book's references preceded 1950 ), rather than addressing " anything currently regarded as important by scientists in the relevant fields ", suggesting that drawing conclusions from early human intelligence research is like condemning the contemporary automobile industry based upon the mechanical performance of the Ford Model T.

* Reading and teaching guide from Faber and Faber, the book's UK publisher

It provides interpretative strategies, so that UUs ( among others ) might be able to engage in public debate about what the Bible says from a liberal religious perspective, rather than relinquishing to religious conservatives, and other more literal interpretations, all control over the book's contents and significance in matters of public and civic import.

Despite the book's one-sided and prejudiced statements about gay men, one middle-aged matron from a small town in Wisconsin was heard to say " Until I read this book, I never actually knew precisely what it was that homosexuals did ".

The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben in the hope of " countering the ' pre-emptive censorship '" that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.

The book's title comes from John Bunyan's allegorical story The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time of Thackeray's novel.

The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook.

The book's title comes from the ballad " Mary Ambree ", which starts, " When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt ".

In 1975, American director Gerard Damiano, well known for Deep Throat ( 1972 ) and The Devil in Miss Jones ( 1973 ) created the movie The Story of Joanna, highly influenced by the Story of O, by combining the motifs from one of the book's chapters and from Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit.