The Jewel in the Crown is a 1966 novel by Paul Scott that begins his Paradise Quartet. The Quartet novel sequence in four volumes is set in the last days of British rule in India during World War II.
Aristotel noted that "art imitates life" but it turned out that "life imitates art" can also be the other way around, as in the case of the novel The First, Second, Third Man by Mirjana Đurđević.
The book contains chronologically arranged stories published during Kafka's lifetime, except for the last four, which he approved for publication but, unfortunately, did not live to see publication.
A tipsy cabaret dancer from the Picratt nightclub entered the police station and excitedly announced that she had heard two men at the next table in the bar conspire to kill a countess, an unknown countess.
The novel, whose original title is L'Homme de plâtre, explores complex human destinies through the story of a protagonist whose life symbolically reflects fragility and vulnerability, like plaster.