A Room With a View is the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young Edwardian woman on holiday in Florence with her overbearing older cousin. While there, Lucy falls in love with an Englishman named George Emerson and the two rapidly begin growing closer. The novel is mainly concerned with the restrictions placed on young women by Edwardian society, a set of social rules exemplified by Lucy's hotel room with its beautiful view and the constant presence of her nosy and oppressive cousin.
Interview with the Vampire is the story of Louis, a two-hundred-year-old vampire interviewed by an unnamed character who has uncovered his existence. Louis tells of his life as a plantation owner, his conversion by the master vampire Lestat, and his travels and suffering in the Old World. Louis' tale is a cautionary one, highlighting the perils of immortality and the mercilessness of vampires, but the narrator is instead drawn to become one of them. In the end Louis flees, disgusted by the interviewer's greed.
The View From Saturday is a children's novel which tells the story of four students-Noah, Nadia, Ethan, and Julian-as they compete to win the New York State Academic Bowl. The structure of the story reveals scenes from each child's past in which they learned the answers to the questions being asked. The story of Mrs. Olinski, the students' teacher, is also told as the book reveals why these four students make such a good team, and why winning isn't everything.
A View From the Bridge is the story of Eddie Carbone, an Italian-American dockworker living in Red Hook, New York. Eddie lives with his wife and their niece, Catherine, and also hosts several of his wife's cousins who are illegal immigrants from Italy. Eddie becomes obsessed with Catherine and his fixation begins a series of events that leads to his betrayal of the Italian immigrant community and his death at the hands of his wife's cousin, Marco.
"Distant View of a Minaret" is a short story by Alifa Rifaat. Like many of Rifaat's stories, the story deals with issues of religion, femininity and loss in Egyptian society, criticizing aspects of the patriarchy through a religious lens. The story is told from the point of view of a wife having unenjoyable sex with her husband. Afterwards, she prays, reflecting on how religion is more important to her than her alienated relationship with her husband. After the husband dies of a heart attack she is surprisingly unfazed.