Gaskell's last novel,widely considered her masterpiece,follows the fortunes of two families in nineteenth century rural England.At its core are family relationships-father,daughter and step-mother,father and sons,father and step-daughter-all tested and strained by the romantic entanglements that ensue. Despite its underlying seriousness.the prevailing tone is one of comdy.Gaskell vividly portrays the world of the late 1820's and the forces of change within it ,and her vision is always humane and progressive. The story is full of acute observation and sympathetic character-study:the feudal squire clinging to old values,his naturalist son welcoming the new world of science,the local doctor and his scheming second wife,the two girls brought together by their parents'marriage……
Introduction and Notes by Keith Wren, University of Kent at Canterbury A historical romance, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D'Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers - Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth century France are vividly played out in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy, Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains, and Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion
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.
Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative de*ions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.
Take a journey of imagination. In this all-time favorite, Phileas Fogg and his manservant set out to win a wager by travelling around the world in 80 days. They embark on a fantastic, action-packed journey into a world filled with danger and beauty, from India to the American frontier.
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
It's one of the most famous novels of the 19th century, and probably the one that's least actually read. *The Invisible Man,* first published in 1897, became the basis for the classic 1933 film starring Claude Rains-as well as its many spinoffs-but the novel is quite different: it's an early example of science fantasy that was as much about character as it was about concept. One of the most enduringly popular writers of modern literature, Wells here assured his position as one of the fathers of imaginative literature with his psychologically complex tale of a scientist who renders himself invisible and eventually goes mad because of it. And because it focuses more on people than on technology, it remains a compelling tale even more than a century after it was written. British author HERBERT GEORGE WELLS (1866-1946) is best known for his groundbreaking science fiction novels *The Time Machine* (1895), *The Invisible Man* (1897), and *The War of the Worlds* (1898).
With an Introduction and Notes by Adam Roberts Royal Holloway, University of London Homer's great epic describes the many adventures of Odysseus, Greek warrior, as he strives over many years to return to his home island of Ithaca after the Trojan War. His colourful adventures, his endurance, his love for his wife and son have the same power to move and inspire readers today as they did in Archaic Greece, 2800 years ago. This poem has been translated many times over the years, but Chapman's sinewy, gorgeous rendering (1616) stands in a class of its own. Chapman believed himself inspired by the spirit of Homer himself, and matches the breadth and power of the original with a complex and stunning idiom of his own. John Keats expressed his admiration for the resulting work in the famous sonnet, 'On first looking into Chapman's Homer': 'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold...'
Long considered the first great modern novel of war by an American author, this classic work is set in the time of the Civil War and tells a powerful, psychological story of a young soldier's struggle with the horrors--both within and without the war. 作者简介： Stephen Crane was born in Newark, NJ in 1871, the son of a Methodist minister. Before he reached twenty-five, Crane had made his mark on the American literary scene by writing two major works: Maggie: a Girl of the Streets (1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895). He failed a theme-writing course in college at the same time he was writing articles for newspapers, among them the New York Herald Tribune. Maggie, drawn from firsthand observations in the slums of New York, was praised and condemned for its sordid realism. By contrast, The Red Badge of Courage, also praised for its realism, was drawn entirely from newspaper accounts and research, as Crane himself never went to war. Crane's adventurous spirit drove him to Cuba in 1896, pro
Set in the mid-nineteenth century and written from the author's first-hand experience, North and South follows thestory of the heroine's movement from the tranquil but moribund ways of southern England to the vital but turbulent north. Elizabeth Gaskell's skilful narrative uses an unusuallove story to show how personal and public I ves were woven together in a newly industrial society. This is a taleof hard-won triumphs - of rational thought over prejudice and of humane care over blind deference to the market.Readers in the twenty-first century will find themselvesabsorbed as this Victorian novel traces the origins of problems and possibilities which are still challenging a hundredand fifty years later: the complex relationships, public andprivate, between men and women of different classes.
Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where Gossip Girl and her friends are the biggest stars ...whether or not the cameras are rolling. Lights, camera, scandal! Hollywood is invading New York and Serena is set for her big screen debut. She's already having an off-screen romance with her onscreen lover, Thaddeus. What will that mean for Hamptons-bound Nate? And if Nate is free, what about Blair? Sure, she's off to London to spend time with her royal boytoy, but Nate will always be Prince Charming in her eyes...
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 numbimg 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.
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.
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is an ominous fable about the pursuit of great wealth. Readers will be transported to a fabulous fantasy land of such opulence that its very existence has to remain a jealously guarded secret. Fatal consequences lie in store for 'bona fide' guests and uninvited visitors alike, while the sybaritic luxury of the place is evoked in an effortless prose style which is quintessentially F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also featured in this volume are The Cut-Glass Bowl, May Day, The Rich Boy, Crazy Sunday, An Alcoholic Case, The Lees of Happiness, The Lost Decade and Babylon Revisited.
Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by her cynical and indolent husband. With its wit, its social precision and, above all, its irresistible heroine, Pride and Prejudice has proved one of the most enduringly popular novels in the English language.
Dickens wrote of David Copperfield: 'Of all my books I like this the best'。 Millions of readers in almost every language on earth have subsequently come to share the author's own enthusiasm for this greatly loved classic，possibly because of its autobiographical form。 Following the life of David through many sufferings and great adversity，the reader will also find many light-hearted moments in the company of a host of English fiction’s greatest stars including Mr Micawber，Traddles，Uriah Heep，Creakle，Betsy Trotwood，and the Peggoty family。 Few readers,arriving at the end of David Copprfidld,will not wish to echo Thackeray’s famous praise,having read the first monthly part-‘Bravo Dickens’。
This volume completes the canon of the illustrated Sherlock Holmes stories, reprinted from The Strand Magazine. It contains the short story series Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear - a sinister novella which appeared in 1914-15 - His Last Bow:The War Service of Sherlock Holmes and the last 12 stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
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.
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.
Sherlock Holmes was not the only writing Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) did but Holmes and Dr. Watson are his most remembered characters. Holmes titled himself a "Consulting Detective". His powers of observation, his understanding of crime, and his insights into the criminal mind were brilliant. His knowledge of things not related to crime were extemely limited, except in opera and the violin. Like many other authors famous for a single character, Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to "kill" Holmes. But the readers would not let this happen. Holmes eventually appeared in 56 short stories and 4 novels. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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.
The Diary of a Nobody is so unassuming a work that even its author, George Grossmith, seemed unaware that he had produced a masterpiece. For more than a century this wonderfully comic portrayal of suburban life and values has remined in print, a source of delight to generations of readers, and a major literary influence, much imitated but never equalled. If you don't recognise yourself at some point in The Diary you are probably less than human. If you can read it without laughing aloud you have no sense of humour.
Lawrence's finest, most mature novel initially met with disgust and incomprehension. In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert, and Gudrun with Gerald,critics could only see a sorry tale of sexual depravity and philosophical obscurity. Women in Love is, however, a profound response to a whole cultural crisis. The 'progress' of the modern industrialised world had led to the carnage of the First World War. What, then, did it mean to call ourselves 'human'? On what grounds could we place ourselves above and beyond the animal world? What are the definitive forms of our relationships - love, marriage,family, friendship - really worth? And how might they be otherwise? Without directly referring to the war, Women in Love explores these questions with restless energy. As a sequel to The Rainbow, the novel develops experimental techniques which made Lawrence one of the most important writers of the Modernist movement.
