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"When it comes to walking the mean streets, Dickens could give modern genre authors the tour of their lives." -Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
When a corpse is found in the Thames River and identified as John Harmon, many lives will be forever changed. John, who had been abroad and estranged from his miserly father for years, will no longer collect his inheritance. It will instead go to the miser's employees, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, transforming...
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Pamela Andrews is a fifteen-year-old maidservant at an estate in Bedfordshire. When Lady B, her employer, dies, her son Mr. B takes an interest in the innocent young girl, quickly turning from generosity to outright attempts at seducing her. As Pamela rejects his advances, she considers returning home to live in poverty with her parents. When he catches wind of her plan, however, Mr. B accuses Pamela of having an affair, notifying her parents and...
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We wonder that so great a man as Abraham Lincoln should spring from humble people - but who knows what his more distant ancestry might have been? In a series of dramatic chapters, Mr. Buchan tells what he imagines to have been the ancestry of Lincoln. The worthy son of a northern chieftain who had come down with his people into Normandy; a Norman knight who fought under Duke William and settled in England; a French knight, emissary of Saint Louis...
4) Dead Souls
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First published in 1842, "Dead Souls" is the story of Chichikov, a young middle-class gentleman who comes to a small town in Russia with a dubious plan to improve his wealth and position in life. He begins by spending beyond his means on the premise that he can impress the local officials and gain standing and connections in the community. At the heart of his plan is the idea of acquiring "dead souls" or more explicitly serfs of landowners who have...
5) Daisy Miller
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A Timeless Classic of Societal Customs, Cultural Disputes, and The Cost of Non-Conformity
Henry James' novella Daisy Miller, features one of his greatest heroines. At first glance it seems to be a simple story of a lovely young, independent American girl traveling through Europe. But her flouting of social conventions has the potential to lead to catastrophe as she disrupts the rigid social rules of the Old World, attracting and scandalizing all...
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An American in Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, John Durham pays court to an old flame, Fanny Frisbee, now married to the dissolute Marquis de Malrive. Devoutly Catholic, Fanny's husband is unlikely to grant her a divorce or relinquish custody of their young son, who is heir to the family title. When the Malrive family, urged by Fanny's enigmatic sister-in-law, Madame de Treymes, agrees to a divorce, John must decide whether or not he...
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Here is the story of Christy Mahon, hailed as a hero (and an immediate object of romantic attention) for his claim to have killed his cruel father. However, when he finds out his father survived, Mahon attempts to murder him a second time. Will he succeed? Considered Synge's masterpiece, this play was viewed as indecent and met with riots when first performed.
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First published in English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859 from its original Farsi, "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" is a collection of quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam, a Persian astronomer and mathematician born in the later part of the 11th century. Omar Khayyam's poetry, which received very little international notoriety in its own day, achieved classic status when it was discovered and rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald over seven...
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Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Controversial for its honest depiction of work, desire, and urban life, Sister Carrie has endured as a classic of naturalist fiction and remains a powerful example of social critique over a century after its publication. Despite poor reviews upon publication, the novel is now considered a landmark of American literature. Tired of the countryside, Carrie Meeber moves to Chicago to live with her older...
10) Waverley
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Edward Waverly enjoyed a privileged upbringing, despite his family's drama. Coming of age during a political uprising, Edward's time is split between his father and his uncle, who each have opposing political views, which causes a rift in the family. His uncle is a traditional British subject that wishes to overthrow the government so that Charles Edward Stuart is restored to power, commonly known as a Jacobite. However, Edward's father is a Hanoverian,...
11) The Princess
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The Princess (1847) is a poem by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written before Tennyson was named Poet Laureate, the poem addresses accusations from critics that the poet refused to write on serious subjects, as well as the founding of Queen's College, London, the first college for women in Britain. Despite its comedic tone and somewhat critical outlook, the poem is seen as an important early work dedicated to exploring the concerns of the burgeoning...
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William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1871, but his literary reputation really took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which describes the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur in the paint business. His social views...
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First published in 1883, this charming book includes many of James Whitcomb Riley's signature poems, including "Thoughts fer the Discuraged Farmer" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin." Also graced by noted Brown County artist Will Vawter's folksy illustrations of farm scenes from our past, this Library of Indiana Classics edition faithfully reproduces the 1905 edition. A must-have for Riley enthusiasts everywhere, it offers a warm look at how farm...
14) Poems
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Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893—4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend and mentor Siegfried Sassoon, and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert...
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"The King of the Golden River," which Ruskin wrote in 1841 (it was not published until 1851) for nineteen-year-old Euphenia Chalmers Gray, whom he married in 1848. The story is set in the ancient country of Stiria, in a beautiful and fertile valley called Treasure Valley, owned by brothers Schwartz, Hans and Gluck. When the cruel Hans and Schwartz turn an important stranger away from their home, the valley turns to desert, leaving them penniless and...
16) Five Tales
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Excerpt: "It was a dark room at that hour of six in the evening, when just the single oil reading-lamp under its green shade let fall a dapple of light over the Turkey carpet; over the covers of books taken out of the bookshelves, and the open pages of the one selected; over the deep blue and gold of the coffee service on the little old stool with its Oriental embroidery. Very dark in the winter, with drawn curtains, many rows of leather-bound volumes,...
17) Bel Ami
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Guy de Maupassant, one of the 19th century's most admired French writers, is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern short story. Maupassant's stories are characterized by their wealth of style, clever plotting and effortless resolutions. Many of his stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s, describing the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught in the conflict, emerge from catastrophe and change. "Bel Ami",...
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The Fortune of the Rougons (1871) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. The first of twenty volumes of Zola's monumental Les Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class, and history that traces the disparate paths of several French citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning the entirety of the French Second Empire, Zola provides a sweeping portrait of change that refuses to shy away from controversy and truth as it gets...
19) Phaedo
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A classic work of ancient Greek literature from Plato, one of the most famous of all ancient Greek philosophers, the "Phaedo" is the moving story of the last moments of Socrates life as recounted by Phaedo, a student of Socrates and a first-hand witness to his final hours. "Phaedo" is the fourth and last dialogue by Plato of Socrates final days, following "Euthyphro", "Apology", and "Crito". In "Phaedo" we see the famous philosopher in his last hours...
20) South sea tales
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Featuring eight works of short fiction, South Sea Tales by Jack London is an adventurous collection with a nautical theme. With settings on islands or ships, South Sea Tales tell the exciting, but often heartbreaking tales of violence, colonialism, and racism. The House of Mapuhi follows the son of a trading magnate, who travels from island to island buying valuable items for his mother's business. When he learns of a brilliant pearl owned by one...
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