The Cliff
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The stunning collection of short fiction that established Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the most powerful and provocative artists in nineteenth-century America Dr. Heidegger invites four friends to witness an experiment. As the impoverished merchant Mr. Medbourne, the gout-ridden sinner Colonel Killigrew, the ruined politician Mr. Gascoigne, and the aged widow Wycherly watch, Heidegger places an old rose in a vase filled with water drawn from the...
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Six hundred years into the future, humans are bred by cloning, and "mother" and "father" are forbidden words. Originally published in 1932, Huxley's terrifying vision of a controlled and emotionless future "Utopian" society is truly startling in its prediction of modern scientific and cultural phenomena, including test-tube babies and rampant drug abuse.
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"As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I...
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Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...
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Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. He had a knack for absurdity and hypocrisy, a trait that made him immensely popular in the 17th century Renaissance period. However, his reputation diminished somewhat in the Romantic era, when he began to be unfairly compared to Shakespeare. The Theatre in London had had been denied to "The Admiral's Men" in 1597, but the troupe...
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First published in 1880, “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” by Lew Wallace is considered one of the most important and influential Christian novels of the nineteenth-century. The novel follows much of the life of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince from Jerusalem living in the time of Christ. Wallace intertwines the lives of Judah and Jesus of Nazareth, beginning the novel with the events of the Nativity and later following the downfall and ensuing hardships...
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Published in 1839, Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens' third novel. In it, Nicholas Nickleby must earn a living to support his mother and sister after his father dies unexpectedly. Turning to a wealthy uncle in London for help, Nicholas is hired on as assistant to Wackford Squeers, a sadistic and small-minded schoolmaster. Meanwhile, his sister must take a job in a milliner's studio and is occasionally pressed into service by their uncle who exploits...
8) Pollyanna
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One of the all-time classics of children's literature, a feel-good book full of enthusiasm and exuberance, and a perfect family read"There is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it."When Pollyanna Whittier's father dies she is sent to live with her Aunt Polly in Vermont. A clash of personalities ensues as Pollyanna's sunny disposition sits ill with her aunt's need for quiet, her passion for...
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"It's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep."
"I am the most terrible animal that's ever existed."
"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice, it is a fallacy. You in America will see that someday."
"It's good to trust others but, not to do so is much better."
"I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look for moral guidance." (Mussolini)
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, born on July 29, 1883, who went...
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Here is a charming collection of stories, mostly set in New England in the 1800s, that depict how Christmas was celebrated then.
Seems that Christmas was not always a tree with dozens, if not hundreds, of gifts spread around the tree. Consumerism not being then what it is today, the gift might simply be a letter from a long-missing loved one, or simply the return through a blizzard of a husband who had left only hours ago on a mission of mercy. The...
11) Abraham Lincoln
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Lincoln's connection to black history may go much further than his role in slavery. In the 2001 book 'Black People and Their Place in History', historian Leroy Vaughn, alleges that Lincoln's father was African American and his mother had Ethiopian ethnicity, both of which may have explained his "very dark skin and coarse hair." The fact is his rivals campaigned using propaganda that depicted Lincoln as "Abraham Africanus the First," an African man.
It...
12) Tales of Unrest
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Featuring five works of short fiction from the critically acclaimed author, Joseph Conrad, Tales of Unrest is a fascinating exploration of human struggle and philosophy. Karain: A Memory adopts elements of a traditional ghost story, setting an eerie mood as it explores the duality common among colonial and post-colonial people. The Idiots depict a family driven to murder after a couple stains to raise their intellectually disabled children. With the...
13) Walden
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Henry D. Thoreau (1817–62) was an American author, naturalist, poet, and philosopher. He wrote many essays and books, including Civil Disobedience, Walking, and The Maine Woods, among others. John Updike (1932–2009) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, and poet.
One of the most influential and compelling books in American literature, Walden is a vivid account of the years that Henry D. Thoreau spent alone in a secluded...
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Candide is characterized by its tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical, and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious coming-of-age narrative, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is bitter and matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake....
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Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution is one of the most important of Lenin's early writings. It was written in June and July 1905, while the Russian Revolution of 1905 was taking place. Lenin's preface poses these questions: "in educating and organizing the working class;...where should we place the main political emphasis in this work of education and organization? On the trade unions and legally existing associations, or...
16) Beowulf
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Beowulf is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical,...
17) Crome Yellow
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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...
18) After London
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A catastrophe has descended upon England. London is now a pestilent swamp, dotted with the ghostly remains of ancient buildings. A giant lake dominates the center of the country, towns have collapsed and given way to forests, and the few scattered survivors have descended into barbarism. Amid the ruins of civilization and a countryside ravaged by warring tribes, a lone hero undertakes a quest to prove himself worthy of his beloved. Characterized by...
19) Political Ideals
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In dark days, men need a clear faith and a well-grounded hope; and as the outcome of these, the calm courage which takes no account of hardships by the way. The times through which we are passing have afforded to many of us a confirmation of our faith. We see that the things we had thought evil are really evil, and we know more definitely than we ever did before the directions in which men must move if a better world is to arise on the ruins of the...
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Walt Whitman's "The Wound-Dresser" is a sixty-five-line free-verse poem in four sections describing the suffering in the Civil War hospitals and the poet's suffering, faithfulness to duty, and developing compassion as he tended to soldiers' physical wounds and gave comfort. Published at war's end, the poem opens with an old veteran speaking, imaginatively suggesting some youths gathered about who have asked him to tell of his most powerful memories....