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English
Description
In the picaresque series of sketches in Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens wrote one of the masterpieces of comic fiction, and presented readers with some of the most colorful and beloved characters of all time. In Dickens' first novel, initially based on a series of illustrations, members of the eponymous club recount their various experiences and encounters as they travel around England. Without the dark themes that dominated so many of his novels,...
3) Tono-Bungay
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English
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The story of an apprentice chemist whose uncle's worthless medicine becomes a spectacular marketing success, Tono-Bungay earned H. G. Wells immediate acclaim when it appeared in 1909. It remains a sparkling chronicle of chicanery and human credulity, and is today regarded by many as Wells's greatest novel. As Andrea Barrett observes in her Introduction, "Through its detailed, often brilliant descriptions and powerful imagery, [Tono-Bungay] slyly satirizes...
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The Children of the New Forest (1847) is a novel by Frederick Marryat. Although Marryat is more widely known for novels inspired by his experience as a captain in the Royal Navy, The Children of the New Forest is a historical children's novel set in the aftermath of the English Civil War. Bringing his readers into the world of danger and political intrigue that was England in the 17th century, Marryat earns his place as one of the leading adventure...
5) She
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English
Description
She (1887), an intoxicating mix of adventure, fantasy, and romance, is an underappreciated classic of English literature. Among his most successful works, She-which was inspired by Haggard's experience living in South Africa-helped the author establish his reputation as a leading writer of his generation and an invaluable pioneer of the lost world genre of fantasy fiction. Horace Holly, a young Cambridge professor, receives an unexpected opportunity...
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Five Weeks in a Balloon is not only the first installment in Jules Verne's celebrated Voyages Extraordinaires series, but also the first of Verne's works to earn him widespread popularity as a writer of science fiction and adventure novels.
Following his invention of an ingenious new air balloon capable of long-distance flight, Dr. Samuel Fergusson embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with his trusted servant, Joe, and loyal friend, Dick Kennedy....
7) Crome Yellow
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English
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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...
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English
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The Professor was the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed, and is based on her experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator that she used, the work questioned many of the presuppositions of Victorian society.
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The Palliser novels volume 4
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English
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Description
Phineas Redux Anthony Trollope - When Phineas's wife dies, he becomes discontented with his life as a minor government functionary and longs to return to his exciting former career of politics in London. His luck is as strong as ever; his party is seeking to return to power with fresh blood, and with its support, he is once again elected to Parliament.
However, he makes a bitter enemy within his own party, Mr. Bonteen. When Bonteen is murdered, there...
10) Summer
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Series
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English
Description
Originally born in an impoverished community, Charity's parents sought out the most educated man in the nearby New England town to raise their daughter. After being surrendered to a lawyer named Royall, Charity was raised comfortably by Mr. Royall and his wife. However, when Mrs. Royall tragically passes away, Charity's relationship with Royall is threatened. After his wife's death, Royall begins to feel sexually attracted to Charity, and when she...
11) Adam Bede
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English
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Originally published in 1859, "Adam Bede" is the first novel by George Eliot, which was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. Eliot was one of the leading British writers of the Victorian era, as well as a noted journalist, poet, and translator. "Adam Bede" concerns a small, tight-knit, and fictional rural community called Hayslope and the romantic drama that develops between four of its young residents: the title character Adam, a young carpenter, the...
12) Mortal Coils
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English
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Mortal Coils Aldous Huxley - Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley in 1921.
As a Hollywood screenwriter Huxley used much of his earnings to bring Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. He worked for many of the major studios including MGM and Disney.
In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S....
13) The Star Rover
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English
Description
Jack London was born into abject poverty in the slums of San Francisco during the winter of 1876. His writing was to reflect the hard life he lived, perpetually chronicling men facing the wild as he did throughout his life. After his eighth grade year, poverty forced London to leave school. This did not stop him, as he furthered his literary knowledge and skill at the Oakland Public Library, borrowing books and educating himself. London faced great...
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English
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The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. The protagonist of The History of Mr. Polly is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves contented serenity with little help from those around him. Mr. Polly's most striking characteristic is his "innate sense of epithet",...
15) Trilby
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English
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Trilby (1894) is a novel by George du Maurier. Originally serialized in Harper's Monthly the novel went on to become an international bestseller, attracting controversy and interest for its depiction of bohemian life in 19th-century Paris. Although Trilby has been criticized by such readers as George Orwell for its anti-Semitic depiction of Svengali, the novel has been adapted countless times for theater and film, including a 1931 motion picture starring...
16) Hunger
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English
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Knut Hamsun believed that modern literature should express the complexity of the human mind and nowhere is that philosophy more evident than in this stunning modern masterpiece, "Hunger." First published in 1890 in Norwegian and based on Hamsun's own experiences with poverty prior to his success as an author, "Hunger" tells the story of an unnamed vagrant who stumbles around the streets of Norway's capital city of Kristiania (now Oslo) looking for...
17) Free Air
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English
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Bored of the parties and luxuries that come with her socialite lifestyle, Claire Boltwood longs for something more authentic in her life. Desperate for adventure, Claire and her father decide to travel from New York City to the Pacific Northwest in their automobile, a new privilege enjoyed by the rich. Though he is a clever businessman, Claire's father knows nothing about cars, so he encourages Claire to drive, challenging the gender stereotypes of...
18) The Water Babies
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English
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The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he appears to drown and is transformed into a "water-baby", as he is told by a caddisfly-an insect that sheds its skin-and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly,...
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English
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An angel comes to Earth in this fantastical tale by H. G. Wells When a fallen angel appears in the skies of southern England, the vicar of a small town mistakes the winged being's dazzling plumage for that of a bird and shoots him down. This is only the first misfortune to befall "Mr. Angel," as he comes to be known. "Neither the Angel of religious feeling nor the Angel of popular belief," this celestial visitor quickly draws the ire of the village...
20) Sartor Resartus
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English
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Literally meaning "The tailor re-tailored," "Sartor Resartus" is Thomas Carlyle's 1836 novel which was first serialized in "Fraser's Magazine" in 1833-1834. The novel poses as a review for the work "Clothes, Their Origin and Influence" by the fictional philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo University. Intended by Carlyle as a new kind of book, "Sartor Resartus" is at once a work of fiction and social...
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