Grade 9 Up-The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II is narrated by British theatre, film, and television actor David Timson. His Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are near perfect. The only place where Timson's narration is less than perfect is his female and German characters. All in all, this is a fine production, with piano and string music by Paganini and others sprinkled throughout. All of the stories take place after Dr. Watson has married and moved from Baker Street. "The Scandal in Bohemia" is a good story with which to begin, because in it Watson describes both Holmes' singular lifestyle of old books, the violin and cocaine, and his extraordinary powers of deduction and disguise. This information may help to reel in students who are unfamiliar with the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The four cases are interconnected in that, although Holmes solves each case, in each he has to admit a failure, which adds a humanizing quality to the otherwise invincible Holmes. In "The Scandal in Bohemia," Watson and Holme

A Pulitzer Prize-winning classic follows Newland Archer, a young man who, despite his engagement to a beautiful socialite, is passionately drawn to the Countess Ellen Olenska, and includes biographical and historical data. Reprint. NYT.

Dickens' final novel, left unfinished at his death in 1870, is a mystery story much influenced by the 'Sensation Novel' as written by his friend Wilkie Collins. The action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in Victorian London. Drugs, disappearances, sexual obsession, disguise and a possible murder are among the themes and motifs. A sombre and menacing atmosphere, a fascinating range of characters and Dickens' usual command of language combine to make this an exciting and tantalising story. Also included in this volume are a number of unjustly neglected stories and sketches, with subjects as different as murder , guilt and childhood romance.

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-hearted-ness. This‘comic,epic poem in prose’will make the modern reader laugh as much as it did his forbears.Its biting satire finds an echo in today's society,for as Doris Lessing recently remarked 'This country becomes every day more like the eighteenth century,full of thieves and adventurers,rogues and a robust,unhypocritical savagery side-by-side with people lecturing others on morality.'

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.

Based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. Villette is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude. Rising above the frustrations of confinement within a rigid social order, it is also a story of a woman’s right to love and be loved.

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 little known, brilliant original text by Gaston Lerouxhas been immortalized by screen and stage adaptations.One of the greatest horror stories of all time, The Phantomof the Opera makes compulsive reading. It abounds with wonderful de*ions, extraordinary events, tragedy,horror, pathos, tremendous humour and a gallery of charming minor characters. Leroux’ s portrait of the hideous musician, crazed by his own extreme ugliness,shows compassionate insight into a criminally insanemind. Music infuses the story, enriching the many dimensions of the novel which is steeped in the glamourof life at the Paris Opera. The author’ s knowledge of the building itself and the extra ordinary history of itsconstruction create a basis of realism in the story.Incredible, seemingly supernatural elements are art fully fused with real facts, with references to real peop]e,places and events, so that the novel becomes a dazzling blend of illusion and reality. It is hard to distinguish between them, and the result is that

The story of 'Little Nell' gripped the nation when it first appeared. Described as a 'tragedy of sorrows', it tells of Nell uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes many shapes, the most fascinating of which is the stunted, lecherous Quilp. He is Nell's tormenter and destroyer, and it is his demonic energy that dominates the book.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Costantinople, awakes to find that he is a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.

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.

In this novel, symptomatic of Lawrence's later work, Kate Leslie, an Irish widow visiting Mexico, finds herself equally repelled and fascinated by what she sees as the primitive cruelty of the country. As she becomes involved with Don Ramon and General Cipriano, her perceptions change. Caught up in the plans of these two men to revive the old Aztec religion and political order, she submits to the 'blood-consciousness' and phallic power that they represent.

Emma has long played matchmaker for her friends and believes her own heart immune from the lures of love. This is a fascinating, hilarious coming-of-age tale of one woman seeking her true nature and finding true love in the process.

Hawthorne's classic treatise on morality, judgment, and exile in Puritan America. 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 books to their full potential. SERIES E

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.

Introduction and Notes by David Blair. University of Kent at Canterbury It is 1757. Across north-eastern America the armies of Britain and France struggle for ascendancy. Their conflict, however, overlays older struggles between nations of native Americans for possession of the same lands and between the native peoples and white colonisers. Through these layers of conflict Cooper threads a thrilling narrative, in which Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of a British commander on the front line of the colonial war, attempt to join their father. Thwarted by Magua, the sinister 'Indian runner', they find help in the person of Hawk-eye, the white woodsman, and his companions, the Mohican Chingachgook and Uncas, his son, the last of his tribe. Cooper’s novel is full of vivid incident- pursuits through wild terrain, skirmishes, treachery and brutality- but reflects also on the interaction between the colonists and the native peoples. Through the character of Hawkeye, Cooper raises lasting questions about the

Novel by Jules Verne, published in 1864 in French as Voyage au centre de la Terre. It is the second book in his popular science-fiction series Voyages extraordinaires (1863-1910). Otto Lidenbrock, an impetuous German professor of geology, discovers an encoded manu* in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a passageway to the center of the Earth. Otto impulsively prepares a subterranean expedition, enlisting his young nephew Axel and a stoic Icelandic guide, Hans Bjelke. After descending into an extinct volcano in Iceland, the men spend several months in a underground world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic sea creatures until they ride a volcanic eruption out of Stromboli Island, off the coast of Italy.

Set in an apocalyptic future ending in the year 2100, Shelley's 1826 novel concerns a plague that destroys almost all of humankind. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

Middlemarch is a complex tale of idealism, disillusion,profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love. This penetratinganalysis of the life of an English provincial town is setduring the time of social unrest prior to the first ReformBill of 1832. It is told through the lives of DorotheaBrooke and Dr Tertius Lydgate and includes a host ofother paradigm characters who illurninate the conditionof English life in the mid-nineteenth century. Henrylames described Middlemarch as a 'treasure-house ofdetail' while Virginia Woolf famously endorsed GeorgeEliot's masterpiece as 'one of the few English novelswritten for grown-up people'.

With an Introduction by Richard Jenseth, St Lawrence University The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It reports on the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy turned soldier. It evokes the chaos and the dull clatter of war: the acrid smoke, the incessant rumours of coming battles, the filth and cold, the numbing monotony, the unworldly wailing of the dying. Like an impressionist painter, Crane also captures the strange beauty of war: the brilliant red flags against a blue sky, steel bayonets flashing in the morning sun as soldiers step off into battle. In the midst of this chaotic outer world, he creates an intricate inner world as he takes us inside the head of Henry Fleming.

本书精选法国著名作家莫泊桑的39篇中短篇小说，有《羊脂球》《我的叔叔于勒》《项链》等不朽名篇，内容丰富多彩，结构巧妙动人。