Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Winter 1955 Selections (Reader's Digest Condenced Book #20)

Synopsis

This Reader's Digest volume consists of five condensed selections: The Reason Why, the China I Knew, My Brother's Keeper, Good Morning, Miss Dove, and The Darby Trial. The first selection, "The Reason Why is the extraordinary story of the events and personalities behind the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade. It is a story reaching back into the private lives and vanities of two handsome and renowned British generals, and reflecting the social and military system that made possible their positions of command in the Crimean campaign. Their bitter rivalry was to lead finally to that gallant and futile charge 'into the valley of Death.'" The second selection, The China I Knew, chronicles Perl Bucks experiences living in China: "A DEVOTED missionary family, Pearl Buck's parents refused to bring her up in the protected compounds of the white people in China. Instead, she grew up in a purely Chinese world, speaking the language as her own, studying with a Confucian tutor, making intimate friends among every sort of Chinese, from the poorest peasant to the proudest aristocrat. It was, she writes, ‘a freedom which perhaps no white child had ever known in China,’ and which none were to know again. Out of this unique experience, Mrs. Buck has written a memorable autobiography, already hailed as her best book since her fabulous novel The Good Earth. My Several Worlds (here condensed as The China I Knew) is a remarkably candid personal story, full of delightful characters and anecdotes. Even more, it is the tumultuous story of the making of modern China, as Mrs. Buck saw it through her own and through Chinese eyes. The third selection, My Brother’s Keeper, tells the story of the Holt brothers: "The Holt brothers were handsome, wealthy, talented--and yet they ended their lives as recluses in a run-down mansion stacked to the eaves with old newspapers and mountains of trash, protected from imagined intruders by death-dealing booby traps. A decade ago, when a similar case was headlined in New York, newspaper readers could only guess at the motives which led the two brothers to construct their own tomb about them. In this fictional re-creation, however, the author pieces together every detail of a fascinating riddle: How could such a situation come about? Who was to blame for this retreat from the world? The beautiful opera singer loved by both brothers? Their domineering grandmother? Their terrified mother?" The Fourth Selection, Good Morning, Miss Dove, is about the life of a school teacher: "IT is safe to say that practically every American who ever went to school will recognize Miss Dove. The terrible Miss Dove, she was called by generations of the children of the small town of Liberty Hill. She was the teacher who was held in awe and dread for her rigid discipline and her standards of perfection. It was not until disaster threatened Miss Dove that the whole town realized how deeply she had affected everyone in it. The town's reaction and Miss Dove's own behavior in her personal crisis are here made into a little classic that will evoke recognition, laughter and, quite possibly, a lump in the throat." The final selection, The Darby Trial, is about out whether Mr. Darby was a communist, during the Cold War period in the USA: "WHO was Claude T. T. Darby? "To his thousands of followers he was a spellbinder with a voice "as thrilling as a battle hymn." But Tom Rogers, Assistant Attorney General, had an unshakable hunch that the real Darby was America's Number One Communist--and it was up to him to prove it. Evidence was elusive. Key witnesses disappeared or met with violence. And deep in the heart of Tom's young wife was locked a secret vitally bearing on the case. "As the trial moves from climax to climax, the reader is caught up in an atmosphere of mounting tension. Here are the ruthless and devious ways of Communist conspiracy, exposed to the light of democratic justice. A novel that has all the impact of front-page news, The Darby Trial combines the fascination of mystery with a message of warning and hope."

Copyright:

1955

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

575 Pages

Publisher:

The Reader's Digest Association, Incorporated

Date of Addition:

12/06/20

Copyrighted By:

The Reader's Digest Association, Incorporated

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

Yes

Categories:

Literature and Fiction, Mystery and Thrillers, Parenting and Family

Submitted By:

Barbara Baker

Proofread By:

Sister M. Dolores Dean

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.