ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure of one man's quest for freedom and vengeance on those who betrayed him. 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 interaction * 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 enjoy the world's finest
In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in thewilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, andhis magnificent Irish wolfhound, Merlin, step from shadow intolight...and into an encounter with mystery. That night, a pair ofsingular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to maketheir approach. A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, beginsto unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring to her door allthe forces of a government in peril. At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come togetherto begin a descent into darkness...In Las Vegas, a specialist inchaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable...On a Seattlegolf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements formurder...Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the pastbegins a trek toward his destiny. In a novel that is at once wholly of our time and timeless,fearless and funny, Dean Koontz takes readers into the momentbetween one turn of the world and the next, acros
On the eve of the Globe's production of "Hamlet,"Shakespearean scholar Kate Shelton is given what is claimed to bethe Bard's long-lost work. When a killer decides to stagetheatrical murders as flesh-and-blood realities, Shelton mustdecipher a string of clues before anyone else dies.
This is far and away the finest critical edition of the play available' Eric Rasmussen, Shakespeare Survey --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage. On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a balsa log raft. After three months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, whales, and sharks, they sighted land -- the Polynesian island of Puka Puka. Translated into sixty-five languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage -- a magnificent saga of men against the sea. Washington Square Press' Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Kon-Tiki has been prepared by an editorial committee headed by Harry Shefter, professor of English
Past midnight, Chyna Shepherd, twenty- six, gazed out a moonlitwindow, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley homeof her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderoussociopath, Edgler Forman Vess, has entered the house, intent onkilling everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventure,"Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immensehimself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, tolive with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit. Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safetyand self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At firsther sole aim is to get out alive-until, by chance, she learns theidentity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent onlyshe can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaningbeyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resourceshe has to save an endangered girl—as moment by moment, theterrifying threat Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.
In 1975, the now defunct Laser Books issued Invasion byAaron Wolfe, aka Koontz (who later expanded that novel into Winter Moon , 1994), a breakneck tale of alien invasioncentered on an isolated farm. Koontz's new novel also concernsalien invasion, and a comparison of the two books offers insightinto the evolution of this megaselling author's work. Invasion was mostly speed and suspense—a brilliant ifsuperficial exercise in terror. The new novel also featuresabundant suspense, as a couple in an isolated California homeendure a phosphorescent rain and learn that, around the world, something is attacking humans and laying waste tocommunications. It's only when they drive to a nearby town thatthey learn of a global alien invasion; the tension ratchets as aweird fog descends and the aliens not only manifest physically butanimate the dead. For years, however, Koontz has aimed at more thanjust thrills; today he is a novelist of metaphysics and moralreflection. His aliens are inherently evil as well as scary;s
In Dorian Gray, Wilde's full-length novel, a fashionable youngman sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Also included inthe volume are three of the Irish master storyteller's shortworks.
Revolution is in the air. The king's court sorcerer is beingeyed with suspicion. Not for dabbling in the black arts...not forconsorting with a demon...not for having a dragon as a pet...noteven for being mobbed up. But for the greatest crime of all:raising taxes. Who is this terrible tyrant? None other than Skeevethe Great. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...
It's that time again time to indulge in a spot of jealousy, betrayal and late-night bar-hopping. Also, the moment of truth has finally arrived. Everyone's back from a week of apres-ski hot tub fun in Sun Valley, and cream-coloured envelopes from the Ivy League are beginning to drop all over Fifth Avenue doorsteps. The question is: are the envelopes thick or thin? Has Nate's devotion to his misbehaving heiress dimmed his chances of getting into Brown? Is Blair too busy daydreaming in Eric's old pinstriped Oxfords to remember her real mission in life - Yale? Hopefully Serena can snap her newest-and-oldest best friend out of it. That is, if Serena hasn't already become too much of a vapid, celery-eating supermodel to even care. But we know that Serena is made of sterner stuff don't we?
The wild rush of action in this classic frontier adventure story has made The Last of the Mohicans the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers, and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation between rival war parties create an unforgettable, spine-tingling picture of life on the frontier. And as the idyllic wilderness gives way to the forces of civilization, the novel presents a moving portrayal of a vanishing race and the end of its way of life in the great American forests.
Every so often a character so captures the hearts andimaginations of readers that he seems to take on a life of his ownlong after the final page is turned. For such a character, one bookis not enough--readers must know what happens next. Now Dean Koontzreturns with the novel his fans have been demanding. With theemotional power and sheer storytelling artistry that are histrademarks, Koontz takes up once more the story of a unique younghero and an eccentric little town in a tale that is equal partssuspense and terror, adventure and mystery--and altogetherirresistibly odd. We're all a little odd beneath the surface. He'sthe most unlikely hero you'll ever meet--an ordinary guy with amodest job you might never look at twice. But there's so much moreto any of us than meets the eye--and that goes triple for OddThomas. For Odd lives always between two worlds in the small deserttown of Pico Mundo, where the heroic and the harrowing are everydayevents. Odd never asked to communicate with the dead--it'ssomething
Old Martin Chuzzlewit has a great fortune, but to whom can he leave it? He and his likable grandson, young Martin, have fallen out. Beyond that, a tangle of sly, grasping relatives coil about him. Throughout, the reader is rooting for the gentle Tom Pinch and his lovely sister, Mary. But before all can be decided, Dickens puts both Tom and young Martin through murder, mayhem and a brief purgatory in the United States. Reader Davidson quickly tunes into Dickens's ferocious irony, but his paramount strength is his uncanny ability to find and maintain the perfect voice for each of the vintage characters: drippy, insinuous, vicious, sly, bold American backwoods, or London Cheapside. Each is a distinct creation! Dickens lovers will treasure every tape in this two-volume masterpiece. P.E.F.An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
A long-awaited collection of stories about the real heroes ofthe frontier--the survivors--from America's favorite storyteller ofthe authentic West. They came West to stay, risking their blood todig for gold, ride the range, conquer the greedy, and carve out alegacy of freedom. Reissue.
Daisy Miller is one of Henry James's most attractive heroines: she represents youth and frivolity. As a tourist in Italy, her American freedom and freshness of spirit come up against the corruption and hypocrisy of European manners. From its first publication, readers on both sides of the Atlantic have quarrelled about her, defending or attacking the liberties that Daisy takes and the conventions that she ignores. All three tales in this collection, Daisy Miller, An International Episode and Lady Barbarina, express James's most notable subject, 'the international theme', the encounters, romantic and cultural, between Americans and Europeans. His heroes and heroines approach each other on unfamiliar ground with new freedoms, yet find themselves unexpectedly hampered by old constraints. In An International Episode, an English lord visiting Newport, Rhode Island, falls in love with an American girl, but their relationship becomes more complicated when she travels to London. In the light-hearted comedy
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.
Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths. This complete collection contains all the favourite Father Brown stories, showing a quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner.
Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential English novels。 It is certainly the funniest。 Tom Jones, the hero of the book, is introduced to the reader as the ward of a liberal Somerset squire。 Tom is a generous but slightly wild and feckless country boy with a weakness for young women。 Misfortune, followed by many spirited adventures as he travels to London to seek his fortune, teach him a sort of wisdom to go with his essential good-heartedness。 This’comic,epic prose’ will make the modern reader laugh as much as it did his forebars。Its biting satire finds an echo in today’s society,for Lessntly remarded ’This country becomes every ady more likd the eighteenth century,full of htieves and adventurers,rogues and a robust,unhypocritical saveagery sede-by-side with people lecturing others on morality’。
Ben Cowan and Bijah Catlow had been bound as friends sincechildhood. By the time they grew to manhood, Catlow had become atop cowhand with a wild streak. It took just one disastrousconfrontation with a band of greedy ranchers to make him an outlaw.And when he crossed that line, it was up to U.S. Marshal Ben Cowanto bring him in alive -- if only Catlow would give him thechance...
Filled with exciting tales of the frontier, the chronicle ofthe Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one ofour greatest storytellers. In Treasure Mountain Louis L’Amourdelivers a robust story of two brothers searching to learn the fateof their missing father — and finding themselves in a struggle justto stay alive. Orrin and Tell Sackett had come to exotic New Orleans looking foranswers to their father’s disappearance twenty years before. Touncover the truth, the brothers enlisted the aid of a trailwisegypsy and a mysterious voodoo priest as they sought to re-createtheir father’s last trek. But Louisiana is a dangerous land, and with one misstep thebrothers could disappear in the bayous before they even set foot onthe trail that led to whatever legacy their father had left behind... and a secret worth killing for.
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.