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Anne of Green Gables
by L. M. MontgomeryAnne Shirley is, Mark Twain observed, "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice," and like the elderly Cuthberts who had hoped to adopt a boy instead of the spunky red-headed orphan, generations of readers have grown to love the impetuous Anne.Canada's best known and most beloved novel is available in the definitive text of Montgomery's 1908 classic, an enchanting and timeless story of real lives and real loves.
The Circular Staircase (The Miss Cornelia Van Gorder Mysteries #2)
by Mary Roberts RinehartThe first novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart, America&’s queen of crimeThis is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous. So says Rachel Innes, the spinster in question and one of the most remarkable heroines in American crime fiction. With the irresistible encouragement of her niece Gertrude and nephew Halsey, whom she raised after her brother&’s death, Rachel ignores her better judgment and rents Sunnyside, a sprawling Elizabethan mansion owned by a bank president, for the summer. The first night passes peacefully. In the morning, the entire staff quits. Late the third night, a sinister figure lurks outside the patio window and Rachel hears a heavy crash on the circular staircase at the east end of the house. The fourth night brings a dead body. From there, things only get worse. The dead man turns out to be Arnold Armstrong, ne&’er-do-well son of the owner of Sunnyside. Aunt Rachel has never seen him before, but Gertrude and Halsey knew him all too well. When the investigating detective directs his attention to her niece and nephew, Aunt Rachel decides to solve the murder herself—and walks straight into a web of deceit and treachery so intricate she might never find her way out. This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (Classics With Ruskin Ser. #Vol. 4)
by Lafcadio HearnA classic book of ghost stories from one of the world&’s leading nineteenth-century writers, the author of In Ghostly Japan and Japanese Fairy Tales. Published just months before Lafcadio Hearn&’s death in 1904, Kwaidan features several stories and a brief nonfiction study on insects: butterflies, mosquitoes, and ants. The tales included are reworkings of both written and oral Japanese traditions, including folk tales, legends, and superstitions. &“At age thirty-nine, Hearn travelled on a magazine assignment to Japan, and never came back. At a moment when that country, under Emperor Meiji, was weathering the shock and upheaval of forced economic modernization, Hearn fell deeply in love with the nation&’s past. He wrote fourteen books on all manner of Japanese subjects but was especially infatuated with the customs and culture preserved in Japanese folktales—particularly the ghost-story genre known as kaidan. . . . He died in 1904, and, by the time his &‘Japanese tales&’ were translated into Japanese, in the nineteen-twenties, the country&’s transformation was so complete that Hearn was hailed as a kind of guardian of tradition; his kaidan collections are still part of the curriculum in many Japanese schools.&” —The New Yorker
The Call of the Wild: Classic Novel Posters (The\call Of The Wild, White Fang Ser. #Vol. 1)
by Jack LondonJack London's finest achievement: the tale of a dog's heroic adventures in the frozen YukonAn instant classic when it was first published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is at once a thrilling frontier adventure and a uniquely American ode to the power of nature. The story begins at the dawn of the Klondike Gold Rush, when capable sled dogs are in high demand. Half St. Bernard and half sheep dog, Buck is stolen from an estate in California's idyllic Santa Clara Valley and shipped north. Beset by the harsh conditions of the Yukon, the recklessness of his owners, and the ruthlessness of the other dogs, Buck must learn to recover his primitive instincts in order to survive. But when he forms a special bond with a prospector named John Thornton, Buck is torn between two worlds: that of his human companion and that of the relentless, beckoning wilderness. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
In the Days of Queen Victoria
by Eva March TappanThis early work by Eva March Tappan was originally published in 1903 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'In the Days of Queen Victoria' is a biography of Queen Victoria and details aspects of her school days, her coronation, and her family life. Eva March Tappan was born on 26th December 1854, in Blackstone, Massachusetts, United States. Tappan began her literary career writing about famous characters from history in works such as 'In the Days of William the Conqueror' (1901), and 'In the Days of Queen Elizabeth' (1902). She then developed an interest in children's books, writing her own and publishing collections of classic tales.
The Awakening: Spotlight Edition (Classic Bks.)
by Kate ChopinKate Chopin&’s groundbreaking novel of early feminism set against the evocative backdrop of turn-of-the-century New OrleansEdna Pontellier is trapped. By her marriage, by her responsibilities to two young sons, by the expectations of Creole society. When she falls in love with the charming and flirtatious Robert Lebrun during a summer on the Louisiana coast, Edna awakens to a new sense of herself, and to the possibility of true independence. Mademoiselle Reisz, a locally renowned musician, offers one example of the self-sufficient, artistic existence Edna might lead. An affair with the notorious womanizer Alcée Arobin warns of the passion and danger inherent in living outside the boundaries of convention. Torn between the life that was handed to her and the one she wants to live, Edna makes a shocking decision.Overwhelmingly criticized in its day for its frank depictions of female sexuality, marriage, and a woman&’s desire for independence, The Awakening is now celebrated as one of the earliest—and most revolutionary—feminist novels in American literature.
Tree of Freedom
by Rebecca CaudillA Newbery Honor Book: During the Revolutionary War, a courageous pioneer girl fights for freedom When thirteen-year-old Stephanie Venable moves with her family from North Carolina to a four-hundred-acre homestead in Kentucky, she knows they're in for a great adventure. The family sells whatever belongings they can't fit in their covered wagon, and begin the long journey west. But Stephanie has brought something special with her, an apple seed from their tree back home, just as her grandmother did when she moved from France to America. In Kentucky, the Venables must fell trees, build a cabin, and prepare the land for crops. Being a pioneer is a lot of work, but it's also very exciting: Stephanie and her family must grow, catch, or hunt everything they need to eat and survive. With the Revolutionary War also moving west, the family faces threats from British sympathizers and American rebels. Will freedom take root in America, like Stephanie's young apple tree, or will the Venable family succumb to the hardships of frontier life?
The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance (The Heinle Reading Library: Illustrated Classics Collection Level A)
by H. G. WellsA brilliant scientist&’s experiment leads him into a life of crime in this classic tale—the inspiration for the suspenseful film starring Elisabeth Moss. On a frigid night in a remote English village, a visitor inquires about a room. The innkeeper welcomes him, filling the hearth with a roaring fire, but no matter how warm the room becomes, the traveler will not remove his coat or the scarf that hides his face. If he did, he would disappear. The invisible man is Griffin, a brilliant scientist who tested a new invention on himself and found that it worked far too well. When his lab was destroyed in a fire, Griffin was forced out onto the streets of London, where he turned to theft to survive. He came to the English countryside in a last-ditch attempt to return himself to normal, but he will soon be driven back into the night—and to the very edge of madness—in this original science fiction novel that inspired the psychological horror film starring Elisabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. This ebook edition has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895, when its author, an impoverished writer living a bohemian life in New York, was only twenty-three. It immediately became a bestseller, and Stephen Crane became famous. Crane set out to create "a psychological portrayal of fear." Henry Fleming, a Union Army volunteer in the Civil War, thinks "that perhaps in a battle he might run....As far as war was concerned he knew nothing of himself." And he does run in his first battle, full of fear and then remorse. He encounters a grotesquely rotting corpse propped against a tree, and a column of wounded men, one of whom is a friend who dies horribly in front of him. Fleming receives his own "red badge" when a fellow soldier hits him in the head with a gun. "The idea of falling like heroes on ceremonial battlefields," Ford Madox Ford remarked later, "was gone forever." Shelby Foote, author of The Civil The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with afford-able hardbound editions of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.From the Hardcover edition.
Three Soldiers
by Dos Passos JohnThis grimly realistic depiction of army life follows a trio of idealists as they contend with the regimentation, violence, and boredom of military service. Fuselli, a San Francisco store clerk, embraces conformity in the hopes of a promotion. Chrisfield, an Indiana farm boy, and Andrews, a gifted musician, are repelled by the army's mind-numbing routines and battlefield horrors. Incited past the point of endurance, the soldiers respond with rancor and murderous rage. This powerful exploration of warfare's dehumanizing effects remains chillingly contemporary. Unabridged republication of the classic 1921 edition.
Far from the Madding Crowd: The 1874 Thomas Hardy's Fourth Novel (Ubspd's World Classics Ser.)
by Thomas HardyThomas Hardy&’s classic tale of a woman brave enough to defy convention: Now a major motion picture starring Carey Mulligan Spirited, impulsive, and beautiful, Bathsheba Everdene arrives in Wessex to live with her aunt. She strikes up a friendship with a neighbor, Gabriel Oak, and even saves the young shepherd&’s life. But when he responds by asking for her hand in marriage, she refuses. She cannot sacrifice her independence for a man she does not love. Years later, misfortune has bankrupted Gabriel, while Bathsheba has inherited her uncle&’s estate and is now a wealthy woman. She hires Gabriel as a shepherd but is interested in William Boldwood, a prosperous farmer whose reticence inspires her to playfully send him a valentine. William, like Gabriel before him, quickly falls in love with Bathsheba and proposes. But it is the dashing Sergeant Francis Troy who finally wins her heart. Despite the warnings of her first two suitors, Bathsheba accepts his proposal—a decision that brings long-buried secrets to the fore and leaves everything for which she has fought so hard hanging in the balance. Published a century and a half ago, Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy&’s first major success and introduced the themes he would continue to explore for the rest of his life. A love story wrapped in the cloak of tragedy, it is widely considered to be one of the finest novels of the nineteenth century. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Sherlock Holmes's Greatest Cases
by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleTHE GAME IS ON: the greatest adventures of the greatest detective of them all - Sherlock Holmes.The most famous of all fictional detectives in a selection of his most challenging cases, including the stories A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA and THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE and his most famous novel THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.'Arthur Conan Doyle is unique in simultaneously bringing the curtain down on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that, while imitated and expanded, has never been surpassed.' Stephen Fry 'Why do people still read Sherlock Holmes in an age of DNA testing and electron microscopes? It's elementary. Holmes has a timeless intelligence that puts him head, shoulders and deer-stalker above all other detectives.' Alexander McCall Smith 'Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-arsed children sit spellbound at his feet... No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature.' John Le Carre
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories: The Complete Weird Tales Of Robert W. Chambers (Penguin Orange Collection)
by H. P. Lovecraft S. T. JoshiA definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition with cover art by Travis LouieFrequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's preeminent interpreter, presents a selection of the master's fiction, from the early tales of nightmares and madness such as "The Outsider" to the overpowering cosmic terror of "The Call of Cthulhu." More than just a collection of terrifying tales, this volume reveals the development of Lovecraft's mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a canonical - and visionary - American writer.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde (Bring The Classics To Life Ser.)
by Oscar WildeThe novel that scandalized Victorian England In a London studio, two men contemplate the portrait of another—younger and more beautiful—man. Despite Lord Henry Wotton&’s urging, Basil Hallward refuses to show his painting in public—there is too much of his true feeling for the subject in it. &“I will not bare my soul to their shallow, prying eyes,&” he declares. &“My heart shall never be put under their microscope.&” Instead, it is Dorian Gray&’s soul put under the microscope of this unforgettable novel. Influenced by the cynical, hedonistic Lord Henry, Dorian becomes infatuated with his own youth and beauty and wishes that his portrait would grow old instead of him. His wish comes true, but it is not just the passage of time that mars the painting—the wages of sin are recorded there as well. Freed from the physical toll of his debauchery, Dorian devotes himself to the pursuit of pleasure above all else. He turns on his friends, drives his lover to suicide, and engages in every vice known to man. To society, he remains as handsome and youthful as Prince Charming. In the painting, he is hideous. Too late, Dorian realizes that only one of these two images can be real, and a reckoning deferred is not a reckoning absolved.This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
The Boy Travellers in Australasia
by Thomas W. KnoxHere is humor, especially in many of the illustrations; nostalgia and escapism. The author was one of the most colorful and popular figures on the New York scene at the height of his career in the 1880's. This fine book is just one of his many legacies, and is an invaluable contribution toward a better understanding of our fine friends Down Under.
The Boy Travellers in Australasia
by Thomas W. KnoxHere is humor, especially in many of the illustrations; nostalgia and escapism. The author was one of the most colorful and popular figures on the New York scene at the height of his career in the 1880's. This fine book is just one of his many legacies, and is an invaluable contribution toward a better understanding of our fine friends Down Under.
Behind a Mask: Or, A Woman's Power (Mobi Classics Series)
by Louisa May Alcott<p>An early novel of gothic thrills and chills from the beloved author of Little Women.<p> <p>One of four stories written under the penname A. M. Barnard, Behind a Mask was originally published in 1866 for a young adult audience. Set in Victorian-era Britain, it follows the machinations of Jean Muir, a governess hired by the Coventry family to care for their sixteen-year-old daughter. Winning the confidence of the clan proves easy for Jean, though she does raise some suspicion. And rightly so. Behind closed doors—and beneath her brilliant disguise—Jean reveals her true identity: a cunning and ambitious actress whose goal is nothing less than securing the Coventry family’s estate and fortune for herself.<p>
Jo's Boys: How They Turned Out
by Louisa May AlcottThis sequel to Alcott's "Little Women" and "Little Men" chronicles the return of the classmates of Plumfield, Jo's school for boys. Readers re-encounter Nat, the orphaned street musician, now a conservatory student; restless Dan, back from the gold mines of California; business-minded Tom; and other old friends.
The Mark of Zorro
by Johnston McculleyThis exciting adventure story has achieved immortal fame thanks to the blockbuster film of the same name, starring Douglas Fairbanks-a cinematic triumph that inspired author Johnston McCulley to dedicate it to Fairbanks. It has since seen numerous film and other adaptations, and is even set to become a full-cast audio drama in 2010, produced by renowned audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky and featuring the voice talents of Val Kilmer, Ruth Livier, Elizabeth Pea, Armin Shimmerman, and Meshach Taylor. Set in Mexican California during the 1820s, the tale follows the career of Don Diego Vega, by all appearances just a timid and aristocratic dandy. But apearances can be deceiving, and this is nothing more than a mask to conceal his hidden side as a California Robin Hood known as Zorro, whose swift blade strikes down those who exploit the poor and oppressed. The Mark of Zorro remains a paradigm of swashbuckling adventure and a popular novel to this day.
Rose in Bloom: A Sequel to Eight Cousins
by Louisa May AlcottIn this sequel to Eight Cousins, Rose Campbell returns to the "Aunt Hill" after two years of traveling around the world. Suddenly, she is surrounded by male admirers, all expecting her to marry them. But before she marries anyone, Rose is determined to establish herself as an independent young woman. Besides, she suspects that some of her friends like her more for her money than for herself.