Simon Vance
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English
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The Man in the Iron Mask is the name given to an unidentified prisoner who was arrested in 1669 or 1670 and subsequently held in a number of French prisons, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol (modern Pinerolo, Italy). Recent research suggests that his name might have been "Eustache Dauger", but this still has not been completely proven. He was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for a period of...
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Long hailed as one of the greatest adventure novels ever written, "The Three Musketeers" is the sweeping tale of love, loyalty and revenge in 19th century France.
When young d'Artagnan embarks for Paris to follow his dream of becoming a cadet in the King's guard, he is instructed by his father to brook no insult to his honor. Following this advice soon gets d'Artagnan in a world of trouble, as he is soon embroiled in a trio of duels with three...
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A timely and revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth (and her family) exploring how the Windsors have evolved and thrived, as the modern world has changed around them.
Clive Irving's stunning new narrative biography The Last Queen probes the question of the British monarchy's longevity. In 2021, the Queen Elizabeth II finally appears to be at ease in the modern world, helped by the new generation of Windsors. But through Irving's unique insight...
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The Man Who Laughs (1869) is a novel by Victor Hugo. Written while Hugo was living in exile on the island of Guernsey, The Man Who Laughs is set between the 17th and 18th centuries in England, a time of political unrest and class conflict in which he identified parallels to France of the 19th century. Although the novel was largely panned at the time, it has since been recognized as one of Hugo's greatest works. The Man Who Laughs has inspired over...
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Hergé created only twenty-four Tintin books which have been translated into more than seventy languages and sold 230 million copies worldwide.
The Real Hergé: The Inspiration Behind Tintin takes an in-depth look at the man behind the cultural phenomenon and the history that helped shape these books.
As well as focusing on the controversies that engulfed Hergé, this biography will also look at his personal life, as well as the relationships and...
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English
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What kind of man creates a boy who never grows up? More than 100 years after “Peter Pan” first appeared on the London stage, author J. M. Barrie remains one of the most complex and enigmatic figures in modern literature. A few facts, of course, are widely known: “Peter Pan” made Barrie the richest author of his time, and he bequeathed the royalties to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. He was married, but later divorced, and...
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English
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Dorothy L Sayers was a woman of contrasts. A strong Christian, she had a baby by a man she did not love - out of wedlock. Possessing a fierce intellect, she translated Dante - and also created one of the most popular fictional detectives ever, in Lord Peter Wimsey. With no new biographies on Sayers having been published for some time, Colin Duriez reassesses her, her life, her writings, her studies and her faith. Drawing on previously unpublished...
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English
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Long before the successful The Lord of the Rings films, J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters had captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbad him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the...
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English
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An Oxford student of C.S. Lewis's said he found his new tutor interesting, and was told by J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that. You'll never get to the bottom of him.' You can learn a great deal about people by their friends and nowhere is this more true than in the case of C.S. Lewis, the remarkable academic, author, popularizer of faith - and creator of Narnia. He lost his mother early in life, and became estranged from his father,...
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From the established expert on the subject comes this new biography of one of the world's most successful writers. Breath-taking in scope, and full of the kind of revelations sure to cause press and controversy, Butcher combines existing and new research on Verne's life with the evidence from Verne's works to explore what sort of man Jules Verne was, how he achieved what he did, what went on inside his head, what really made him tick.
Butcher examines...
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English
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The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Meeting in pubs or Lewis's college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'. Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez...
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English
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C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis...
13) Undone
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English
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As the world entered the long night of 2020, Philip Yancey turned to John Donne's Devotions, a nearly 400-year-old manuscript, for guidance. In it, he found a trustworthy companion for living through a global pandemic--or any other crisis. As Yancey says, "Nothing had prepared me for Donne's raw account of confrontations with God."
By faithfully and poetically rendering Donne's 17th century prose into 21st century vernacular, Yancey opens up this...
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English
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After the death of his brother, Warren Lewis lived at The Kilns in Oxford, edited his famous brother's letters, and did a little writing of his own. Then he got a letter from a stranger on the far side of the world. Over the years that followed, he and Blanche Biggs, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, shared a vibrant correspondence. These conversations encompassed their views on faith, their politics, their humor, the legacy of C. S. Lewis, and their...
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Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 2.4 - AR Pts: 1
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English
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"As much a love letter to the cathedral as it is the story of two doomed lovers." -Smithsonian Magazine
Written in 1831, The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo is a beloved French gothic novel which centers around the wondrous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. Set during the reign of King Louis XI, we are introduced to the gypsy dancer Esmerelda. A beautiful girl, both inside and out, Esmerelda captures the hearts of everyone around her,...