The classic story of kindness, love, honor and poverty is not as depressing as some of Hugo's other works. Its historical sweep, during the brewing of the French Revolution, is large, and its emotional sweep even larger. British actor Michael York throws his considerable histrionic skills into the task--each character is carefully articulated, both by tone and pacing. Having played classic French characters before--notably D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers and its sequel--York knows how to manipulate scene and feeling in this type of ambiance, and he performs effortlessly and superbly. D.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
This novel,first published in 1817,achieved a huge success and helped establish the historical novel as a literary form.In rich prose and vivid de*ion,Rob Roy follows the adventures of a businessman's son,Frank Osbaldistone,who is sent to Scotland and finds himself drawn to the powerful,enigmatic figure of Rob Roy MacGregor,the romantic outlaw who fights for justice and dignity for the Scots.This is an incomparable portrait of the haunted Highlands and Scotland's glorious past.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Calico Pie and The Pobble Who Has No Toes, together with Edward Lear's crazy limericks, have entertained adults and children alike for over 100 years. This edition, illustrated by the author, contains all the verse and stories of The Book of Nonsense, More Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, Nonsense Stories and Nonsense Alphabets and Nonsense Cookery. It has a biographical Preface by Lear himself, and concludes with some delightful 'heraldic' sketches of his cat, Foss. 作者简介： Edward Lear (1812-1888) Born in London, Edward Lear was the youngest of twenty-one children. He made his reputation as a water-colorist, and invented himself as an Old Man with a Beard.
West From Singapore is a second collection of two-fistedadventure stores set in the Pacific at the outbreak of World WarII, by the author of the recent New York Times bestseller NightOver The Solomons and the #1 bestselling Last Of The Breed.
Captain Sean Mulkerin comes home from the sea to find hisfamily's Malibu ranch in jeopardy. The death of Sean's father haspushed his mother to the edge of financial ruin, and now it's up toSean to find a way out. The rumor is that the elder Mulkerin foundgold in the wild and haunted California hills, but the only clue toits whereabouts lies with an ancient, enigmatic Indian. When Seanand his brother set forth to retrace their father's footsteps, theyknow they are in search of a questionable treasure--with creditors,greedy neighbors, and ruthless gunmen watching every move theymake. Before they reach their destination, the Mulkerins will testboth the limits of their faith and the laws of nature as they seeksalvation in a landscape where reality can blur like sand and skyin a desert mirage.
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"' So begins the tale of Alice, following a curious White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole and falling into Wonderland. A fantastical place, where nothing is quite as it seems: animals talk, nonsensical characters confuse, Mad Hatter's throw tea parties and the Queen plays croquet. Alice's attempts to find her way home become increasingly bizarre, infuriating and amazing in turn. A beloved classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continued to delight readers, young and old for over a century.
Of mixed race and cultures, Barack Obama struggled for years with his identity and place in society. Having found his niche in public service, he has made history as the fifth African American U.S. senator ever to be elected. Now “the skinny kid” continues his political journey and strives to become the nation’s first black president. From Hawaii to Chicago to Washington, D.C., Senator Obama’s life has been interesting and inspiring.
They tried to tell him that his father had killed himself, butKearney McRaven knew better. No matter what life had dealt him, hisfather would go down fighting. And as he delved deeper into themystery, he learned that just before his father died, the elderMcRaven had experienced a remarkable run of luck: he'd won nearlyten thousand dollars and the deed to a cattle ranch. Not yeteighteen, Kearney was determined enough to track down his father'smurderer and claim what was rightfully his. Now, followed everystep of the way by a shadowy figure, Kearney must solve the mysteryof his father's hidden past--a past that concealed a cold-bloodedkiller who would stop at nothing to keep a chilling secret.
Begun when the author was only eighteen and conceived from a nightmare, Frankenstein, is the deeply disturbing story of a monstrous creation which has terrified and chilled readers since its first publication in 1818. The novel has thus seared its way into the popular imagination while establishing itself as one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction.
With an Introduction and Notes by Professor Stephen Arkin,San Francisco State University Katherine Mansfield is widely regarded as a writer who helped create the modern short story.Born in Wellinton,New Zealand in 1888,she came to London in 1903 to attend Queen's College and returned permanently in 1908.her first book of stories,In a German Pension,appeared in 1911,and she went on to write and publish an extraordinary body of work.This addition of The Collected Stories brings together all of the stories that Mansfield had written up until her death in January of 1923.With an introduction and head-notes,this volume allows the reader to become familiar with the complete range of Mansfield's work from the early,satirical stories set in Bavaria,through the luminous recollections of her childhood in New Zealand,and through the mature,deeply felt stories of her last years.Admired by Virginia Woolf in her lifetime and by many writers since her death,Katherine Mansfield is one of the great literary artists of the twe
Introduction and Notes by Robert Hampson, Royal Holloway College, University of London Nostromo is the only man capable of the decisive action needed to save the silver of the San Tome mine and secure independence for Sulaco, Occidental province of the Latin American state of Costaguana. Is his integrity as unassailable as everyone believes, or will his ideals, like those which have inspired the struggling state itself, buckle under economic and political pressures? Nostromo is an extraordinary illustration of the impact of foreign commercial exploits on a young developing nation, and the problems of reconciling individual identity with a social role.
Nicholas Nickleby,a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times,must set out to make his way in the world.Along the way various older,money-grubbing villains attempt to injure him.Eventually,with the assistance of kind patrons,he and his family achieve economic security and a happy home.Sounds rather trite,doesn't it? Not with characters written by Dickens(Hard Times,Audio Reviews,LJ 5/1/98).Schoolmaster Squeers would make a fine poster boy for child abusers.Ralph Nickleby's initial desire to injure Nicholas gradually develops into a full-blown obsession.Then there are the kind Cheeryble brothers,the gentle,much-abused Smike,and a host of other friends who provide comic relief.Martin Jarvis does an outstanding job of reading this book.His ingenues sound young(a frequent problem area for male readers)while his villains are deliciously evil.The only problems are with the abridgment.In several places,choppy editing has left brief,disconnected scenes and/or character cameos without relevance to the abridged tale.Still
When a huge cyclone transports the orphan Dorothy and her little dog Toto from Kansas to the Land of Oz,she fears that she will never see Aunt Em and Uncle Henry ever again. But she meets the Munchkins, and they tell her to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City where the Wonderful Wizard of Oz will grant any wish.On the way, she meets the brainless Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. The four friends set off to seek their hearts' desires, and in a series of action-packed adventures they encounter a deadly poppy field, fierce animals, flying monkeys, a wicked witch, a good witch, and the Mighty Oz himself.
The life and times of Everyone's favorite thief Filled with action, villains, and surprises, the legend lives on.Days of old bursting with pageantry, knights, and beautiful maidensreturn in a superb edition of this favorite classic story.
If one were to ask, "World, which is the most perfect novel ever written?," the world would immediately answer: Madame Bovary. There are novels of greater structural complexity, such as Lord Jim and The Good Soldier, or of a broader social canvas, like Anna Karenina and In Search of Lost Time, or of more stylistic dash -- Ulysses, Lolita -- and many far more beloved (Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, The Leopard), but Madame Bovary still stands as the most controlled and beautifully articulated formal masterpiece in the history of fiction. Flaubert's artistic sensibility veered most naturally to gaudy excess, not to say a voyeuristic passion for the fleshy, sanguinary and transgressive. A little too much was hardly enough for him. In The Temptation of St. Anthony (three versions, 1849, 1856, 1874), the Queen of Sheba offers herself to the austere saint as a sexual paradise, which she sums up in the quite believable assertion, "I am not a woman, I am a world." Similarly, Salammbo (1862) -- an utterl
When The Forsyte Saga was shown on television in 1967 it was hugely successful. The nation was gripped by the masterful visual telling of the Forsyte family's troubled story and adapted its activities to suit the next transmission. The Forsyte Saga comprising The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let, is here produced by Wordsworth for the first time in a single volume. Initially, the narrative centres on Soames Forsyte - a successful solicitor living in London with his beautiful wife Irene. A pillar of the late Victorian upper middle class, materially wealthy, his appears to be a golden existence endowed with all the necessary possessions for a 'Man of Property', but beneath this very proper exterior lies a core of unhappiness and brutal relationships. The marriage of Soames and Irene disintegrates in bitter recrimination, creating a feud within the family that will have far-reaching consequences.
The epic tale of a young man's quest to capture a hidden treasure on the open seas -- one of the best-loved adventure stories of all time. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information; A chronology of the author's life and work; A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context; An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations; Detailed explanatory notes; Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work; Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interactio;n A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience; Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and en
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.
When the orphan Mary Lennox comes to live at Misselthwaite Manor, she finds it filled with gloom and mystery. Her uncle is sad and silent, there are strange cries in the night and there are tales of a hidden secret garden which Mary is determined to find and unlock.
Lauren and Courtney are having trouble sharing, so they divide their room in half and split their toys—Lauren takes the brushes and Courtney takes the paints; Lauren takes the stools and Courtney takes the table—all so they won’t have to share! But the sisters soon realize that it isn’t fun to play alone. Come share a cup of tea with two sisters as they learn that in order “to live life to the fullest, share every last drop of it with your friends!”
Novel by Gustave Flaubert, published in two volumes in 1857. The novel, with the subtitle Moeurs de province ("Provincial Customs"), first appeared in installments in the Revue from October 1 to December 15, 1856. It ushered in a new age of realism in literature. In Madame Bovary, Flaubert took a commonplace story of adultery and made of it a book that has continued to be read because of its profound humanity. Emma Bovary is a bored and unhappy middle-class wife whose general dissatisfaction with life leads her to act out her romantic fantasies and embark on an ultimately disastrous love affair. She destroys her life by embracing abstractions--passion, happiness--as concrete realities. She ignores material reality itself, as symbolized by money, and is inexorably drawn to financial ruin and suicide. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Cavalier and Roundhead battle it out in the turbulent setting of the English Civil war and provide the background for this classic tale of four orphans as they face adversity, survival in the forest, reconciliation and eventual forgiveness. This is the first enduring historical novel for children, which conjures up as much magic today as it did on first publication. The freedom from adult constraint allied with the necessary disciplines to survive in a hostile world make for a gripping read.
TAO TE CHING IS ANCIENT CHINA'S GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE OF PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND MYSTICISM. TAO TE CHING CONTAINS THE TIME-HONORED TEACHINGS OFTAOISM AND BRINGSA MESSAGE OF LIVING SIMPLY, FINDING CONTENTMENT WITH A MINIMUM OFCOMFORT, AND PRIZING CULTURE ABOVE ALL ELSE. THIS IS THE LAUDED TRANSLATION OF THE EIGHTY-ONE POEMS CONSTITUTING AN EASTERN CLASSIC, THE MYSTICAL AND MORALTEACHINGS OF WHICH HAVE PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCED THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF MANY RELIGIONS--AND THE LIVES AND HAPPINESS OF COUNTLESS MEN AND WOMEN THROUGH THE CENTURIES. TRANSLATED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BYR. B. BLAKNEY AND WITHANEWAFTERWORD BY RICHARD JOHN LYNN
