Catalog Search Results
1) Crome Yellow
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Crome Yellow (1921) is a novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Inspired by his stay at Garsington Manor with members of the Bloomsbury Group, Crome Yellow, Huxley's debut novel, satirizes the society of England's intellectual and political elite. In addition to its autobiographical content, the novel investigates such themes as spirituality, the nature and composition of art, and the fear of a dystopian future.
Invited to spend part of the summer...
Author
Language
English
Description
In “Madame Bovary”, Charles, an awkward country doctor courts and weds Emma, the beautiful young daughter of a patient. Emma, unsuited to the role of housewife, quickly gets restless and begins to explore her passions. This leads to infidelities which she hides from Charles and, eventually, mounting debts as she turns to merchandise for her happiness. Flaubert’s novel is cited as the first example of literary realism and has been called a “perfect”...
Author
Language
English
Description
Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures...
4) Carmilla
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
First published in 1872, Carmilla is a classic gothic novella and one of the earliest examples of vampire fiction.
Fast-paced and gripping, the story follows the protagonist Laura, who lives in a secluded castle in the woods with her father. One day, a carriage accident brings a young woman named Carmilla into their lives, and she is taken in as a guest. As time goes on, Laura becomes increasingly drawn to Carmilla, despite her strange behavior and...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
First published in a 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, The Masque of the Red Death tells the story of Prince Prospero as he tries to avoid a plague by confining himself and his nobles to a masquerade in an abbey. Often considered a gothic allegory, the story reflects on not only life and death but also the illusion of control.
6) Middlemarch
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Middlemarch" is writer George Eliot's crowning literary achievement and the novel is considered by many critics to be one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written.
Written in the style of "realism" popular at the time, it is a study of the class and social structure of the fictional town of Middlemarch in central England and the story touches on all segments of life within the village, from the landed gentry to the working class and everyone...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
In Baroness Emma Orczy's 1905 novel "The Scarlet Pimpernel", the year is 1792 and the French Revolution is complete. People die by the guillotine every day, often unjustly. Stepping in to right these wrongs and rescue the innocent is the elusive "Scarlet Pimpernel", a mysterious agent named for the red flower that is his signature. Meanwhile, foppish Sir Percy Blakeney and his French actress wife Marguerite are having marital difficulties when Marguerite...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Dracula's Guest is a short story by Bram Stoker, first published in the short story collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914). "Dracula's Guest" follows an Englishman (whose name is never mentioned, but is presumed to be Jonathan Harker) on a visit to Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the hotelier's warning to not return late, the young man later leaves his carriage and wanders toward the...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known popularly by his stage name Molière, is regarded as one of the masters of French comedic drama. When Molière began acting in Paris there were two well-established theatrical companies, those of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Marais. Joining these theatrical companies would have been impossible for a new member of the acting profession like Molière and thus he performed with traveling troupes of actors in the French...
10) Twice Told Tales
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The stunning collection of short fiction that established Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the most powerful and provocative artists in nineteenth-century America Dr. Heidegger invites four friends to witness an experiment. As the impoverished merchant Mr. Medbourne, the gout-ridden sinner Colonel Killigrew, the ruined politician Mr. Gascoigne, and the aged widow Wycherly watch, Heidegger places an old rose in a vase filled with water drawn from the...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Of Human Bondage (1915) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Inspired by his experiences as an orphan and young student, Maugham composed his masterpiece. Adapted several times for film, Of Human Bondage is a story of tragedy, perseverance, and the eternal search for happiness which drives us as much as it haunts our every move. Orphaned as a boy, Philip Carey is raised in an affectionless household by his aunt and uncle. Although his Aunt Louisa tries...
12) The Reef
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Written in 1912 and set in and around London, "The Reef" is a story of complex morality and its intricately woven place in society. This narrative primarily follows George Darrow and Anna Leath, a young gentleman and a widowed lady who plan to marry. Both of them experience doubts about their union, with surprising outcomes. Darrow has a brief liaison with the delicate, generous Sophy Viner, a kind woman of the working class. She later meets Anna's...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
In H. Rider Haggard's 1885 debut novel, King Solomon's Mines adventurer Allan Quatermain is approached by aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to join them on an expedition into the heart of Africa. In search of Sir Henry's brother who disappeared looking for King Solomon's lost mines, the trio overcome tremendous odds to stumble upon a lost civilization that holds the key to unimaginable treasure. Considered to be the first of...
14) The Crucible
Author
Language
English
Description
The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft - and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.
About this author: Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Published in 1850, David Copperfield is Charles Dickens' eighth novel and the one that most closely follows the author's own life. A coming of age story, it describes David's life from childhood with a difficult stepfather, his schooling, his entry into the workforce, his courtship and marriage(s) and his eventual success as an author. Filled with colorful characters like Wilkins Micawber and Betsey Trotwood, and unforgettable villains like Uriah...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
An aging lawyer hires a new copyist to help with his firm's workload, and at first he finds himself pleased with his new employee. Bartleby is quiet, efficient and he doesn't display any of the loud eccentricities of the firm's other two copyists, Nippers and Turkey. But one day, when the lawyer asks Bartleby if he will help him compare copies, Bartleby simply replies, "I would prefer not to." As time goes by and Bartleby's strange refusals multiply,...
17) La sirena negra
Author
Series
Language
Español
Formats
Description
Gaspar es un aristócrata acaudalado y refinado, especialmente desencantado de la vida, presa de una obsesión con la muerte y con un oscuro pasado que le atormenta. En una consulta médica, conoce a una mujer enferma de tuberculosis y a su pequeño hijo Rafaelín, al cual, cuando aquella fallece, adopta como hijo suyo. Gaspar adora a este niño, que le parece más hijo suyo que si lo fuera de verdad, se traslada, se aparta de su hermana y de la mujer...
18) The Dead
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"The Dead" is the final and longest story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce. First published in 1904, the stories aim to capture Irish middle class life as it really was around Dublin at the turn-of-the-century. Like many of Joyce's tales in the collection, "The Dead" features a transformative epiphany, where a character experiences a sudden insight into their life that changes the way they see everything. In what...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"From Superman to Man", self-published in 1917 by J. A. Rogers, was the author's first book and a powerful attack on racism and the ignorance that fuels it. Born Joel Augustus Rogers in Jamaica around 1880, Rogers emigrated to the United States in 1906 and eventually settled in Harlem, New York during the exciting artistic and cultural time of the Harlem Renaissance. In "From Superman to Man", a black Pullman porter and a white racist Southern politician...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria.
"The Coming of Arthur"...
In Interlibrary Loan
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Penticton Public Library can be requested from other Interlibrary Loan libraries to be delivered to your local library for pickup. Items must be over 1 year old.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service for new books published this year. Submit Request