books tagged “American literature” (american literature / American Literature)

books tagged “American literature”

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The Ambassadors
by Henry James, Harry Levin

ISBN 0140432337 (0-14-043233-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
The second of James's three late masterpieces, was, in its author's opinion, "the best, all round, of my productions".

Lambert Strether, a mild middle-aged American of no particular achievements, is dispatched to Paris from the manufacturing empire of Woollett, Massachusetts. The mission conferred on him by his august patron, Mrs. Newsome, is to discover what, or who, is keeping her son Chad in the notorious city of pleasure, and to bring him home. But Strether finds Chad transformed by the influence of a remarkable woman; and as the Parisian spring advances, he himself succumbs to the allure of the 'vast bright Babylon' and to the mysterious charm of Madame de Vionnet. [via]
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The Annotated Walden: Walden or Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 0517224232 (0-517-22423-2)
Hardcover, Random House Value Pub

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Book summary:
Walden; Or, Life in the Woods written by legendary author Henry David Thoreau is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great classic on self reliance will surely attract a whole new generation of Henry David Thoreau readers. For many, Walden; Or, Life in the Woods is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Henry David Thoreau is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Walden; Or, Life in the Woods would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. [via]
More editions of The Annotated Walden: Walden or Life in the Woods:
- The Annotated Walden: Walden or Life in the Woods: ISBN 0517224232 (0-517-22423-2)
  Hardcover, Random House Value Pub
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A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole

ISBN 014010934X (0-14-010934-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."
Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.
Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber [via]
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark Twain

ISBN 1416534733 (1-4165-3473-3)
Softcover, Pocket Classics

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Book summary:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain, 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:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

One of the greatest satires in American literature, Mark Twains A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court begins when Hank Morgan, a skilled mechanic in a nineteenth-century New England arms factory, is struck on the head during a quarrel and awakens to find himself among the knights and magicians of King Arthurs Camelot.

What follows is a culture clash of the first magnitude, as practical-minded Hank, disgusted with the ignorance and superstition of the people, decides to enlighten them with education and technology. Through a series of wonderfully imaginative adventures, Twain celebrates American homespun ingenuity and democracy as compared to the backward ineptitude of a chivalric monarchy. At the same time, however, Twain raises the question of whether material progress necessarily creates a better society. As Hank becomes more powerful and self-righteous, he also becomes more ruthless, more autocratic, and less able to control events, until the only way out is a massively destructive war.

While the dark pessimism that would fully blossom in Twains later works can be discerned in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, the novel will nevertheless be remembered primarily for its wild leaps of imagination, brilliant wit, and entertaining storytelling.

With over 200 of the original illustrations by Dan Beard.

Stephen Railton teaches American literature at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is Mark Twain: A Short Introduction.
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Trina Schart Hyman, Mark Twain

ISBN 0688063462 (0-688-06346-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books

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Book summary:
Generations of readers have delighted in the biting social satire and hilarious adventures of the Connecticut Yankee, a nineteenth-century mechanic who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in King Arthur's Britain. The Yankee soon realizes this is not the gallant world of fairy tales, but a cruel, feudalistic society. Ever resourceful, he sets out to modernize and improve things through an ingenious and funny mix of magic and technology, chivalry and sheer tomfoolery. All the trappings of Arthurian legend are here, from damsels in distress to quests and exciting jousts. But who ever heard of knights riding bicycles, or telephones at Camelot? Mark Twain's humorous yet moving classic now features magnificent illustrations by Caldecott medalist Trina Schart Hyman in a beautiful gift edition that all readers will enjoy. [via]
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- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: ISBN 0688063462 (0-688-06346-2)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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Henry David Thoreau
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 0940450275 (0-940450-27-5)
Hardcover, Library of America

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Book summary:
Henry David Thoreau wrote four full-length works, collected here for the first time in a single volume. Subtly interweaving natural observation, personal experience, and historical lore, they reveal his brilliance not only as a writer, but as a naturalist, scholar, historian, poet, and philosopher. "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is based on a boat trip taken with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. "Walden," one of America's great books, is at once a personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual of self-reliance, and masterpiece of style. "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod" portray landscapes changing irreversibly even as he wrote. The first combines close observation of the unexplored Maine wilderness with a far-sighted plea for conservation; the second is a brilliant and unsentimental account of survival on a barren peninsula in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay. [via]
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- Henry David Thoreau: ISBN 0940450275 (0-940450-27-5)
  Hardcover, Library of America
Monarch Notes on Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Charles Leavitt

ISBN 067100879X (0-671-00879-X)
Hardcover, Peterson's

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- Monarch Notes on Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: ISBN 067100879X (0-671-00879-X)
  Hardcover, Peterson's
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Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson, Ray Lewis White

ISBN 0821411802 (0-8214-1180-2)
Hardcover, Ohio Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Library Journal praised this edition of Sherwood Anderson's famed short stories as "the finest edition of this seminal work available." Reconstructed to be as close to the original text as possible, Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure," lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people. [via]
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- Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: ISBN 0821411802 (0-8214-1180-2)
  Hardcover, Ohio Univ Pr
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Sister Carrie
by Theodore Dreiser, Neda M. Westlake, James L. W. West

ISBN 0140188282 (0-14-018828-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel, was published in 1900--sort of. The story of Carrie Meeber, an 18-year-old country girl who moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman, was strong stuff at the turn of the century, and what Dreiser's wary publisher released was a highly expurgated version. Times change, and we now have a restored "author's cut" of Sister Carrie that shows how truly ahead of his time Dreiser was. First and foremost, he has written an astute, nonmoralizing account of a woman and her limited options in late-19th-century America. That's impressive in and of itself, but Dreiser doesn't stop there. Digging deeply into the psychological underpinnings of his characters, he gives us people who are often strangers to themselves, drifting numbly until fate pushes them on a path they can later neither defend nor even remember choosing.
Dreiser's story unfolds in the measured cadences of an earlier era. This sometimes works brilliantly as we follow the choices, small and large, that lead some characters to doom and others to glory. On the other hand, the middle chapters--of which there are many--do drag somewhat, even when one appreciates Dreiser's intentions. If you can make it through the sagging midsection, however, you'll be rewarded by Sister Carrie's last 150 pages, which depict the harrowing downward spiral of one of the book's central characters. Here Dreiser portrays with brutal power how the wrong decision--or lack of decision--can lay waste to a life. --Rebecca Gleason [via]
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Un Yanqui En La Corte Del Rey Arturo / a Connnecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court
by Mark Twain, Carme Manuel, Elizabeth Power

ISBN 8437617421 (84-376-1742-1)
Softcover, Catedra Ediciones

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Book summary:
For lovers of timeless classics, this series of beautifully packaged and affordably priced editions of world literature encompasses a variety of literary genres, including theater, novels, poems, and essays.

Los lectores tomarán un gran placer en descubrir los clásicos con estas bellas y económicas ediciones de literatura famosa y universal. Esta selección editorial cuenta con títulos que abarcan todos los géneros literarios, desde teatro, narrativa, poesía y el ensayo.
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More editions of Un Yanqui En La Corte Del Rey Arturo / a Connnecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court:
- Un Yanqui En La Corte Del Rey Arturo / a Connnecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court: ISBN 8497648005 (84-9764-800-5)
  Softcover, Edimat Libros
- Un Yanqui En La Corte Del Rey Arturo / a Connnecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court: ISBN 8437617421 (84-376-1742-1)
  Softcover, Catedra Ediciones
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Walden
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 1420922610 (1-4209-2261-0)
Softcover, Digireads.Com

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Book summary:
One of the great books of American letters and a masterpiece of reflective philosophizing. Accounts of Thoreau's daily life on the shores of Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts, are interwoven with musings on the virtues of self-reliance and individual freedom, on society, government, and other topics. Introductory note. 1 line illustration. 1 map.
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Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 0451527070 (0-451-52707-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics

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Book summary:
A philosophy of life and observations on government included in these famous books. [via]
More editions of Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience":
- Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience": ISBN 0451523776 (0-451-52377-6)
  Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
- Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience": ISBN 0451527070 (0-451-52707-0)
  Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Walden With Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Thoreau
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 046087635X (0-460-87635-X)
Softcover, Everyman

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Book summary:
The Everyman Paperback Classics series offers the latest scholarship on the works of the world's greatest poets, writers and philosophers. Each edition includes a comprehensive introduction, chronology, notes, appendix, critical responses, and a text summary. Presented in an affordable edition with wide format pages for generous margins for notes. Contact your sales rep or call Tuttle for a complete list of available titles. [via]
More editions of Walden With Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Thoreau:
- Walden With Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Thoreau: ISBN 046087635X (0-460-87635-X)
  Softcover, Everyman
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Walden, or Life in the Woods : Selections from the American Classic
by Henry David Thoreau

ISBN 0877736855 (0-87773-685-5)
Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated

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Book summary:
A beautifully distilled version of Thoreau's most important work, Walden, that became one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature. The royalties from each sale will be donated to the Walden Woods Project, a public land trust working to preserve the land around Walden Pond. Two-color interior. [via]
More editions of Walden, or Life in the Woods : Selections from the American Classic:
- Walden, or Life in the Woods : Selections from the American Classic: ISBN 0877736855 (0-87773-685-5)
  Softcover, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated
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Walden; Or, Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau, Terry Tempest Williams

ISBN 1590300882 (1-59030-088-2)
Hardcover, Shambhala Pubns

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Book summary:
On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into the cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond, thus beginning the most famous experiment in simple living in American history. On the 150th anniversary of that event, Houghton Mifflin, successor to Thoreau's original publisher, is proud to publish a new edition of Walden, annotated by the distinguished Thoreau scholar Walter Harding and illustrated with Thoreau's own drawings. Even those who have read Walden many times will find much that is new in this edition, and those reading the book for the first time will discover why it has changed the lives of generations of readers. [via]
More editions of Walden; Or, Life in the Woods:
- Walden; Or, Life in the Woods: ISBN 0486284956 (0-486-28495-6)
  Softcover, Dover Pubns
- Walden; Or, Life in the Woods: ISBN 1590300882 (1-59030-088-2)
  Hardcover, Shambhala Pubns
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Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson

ISBN 1404339574 (1-4043-3957-4)
Softcover, Indypublish.Com

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Book summary:
Considered to be one of Sherwood Anderson's greatest works, "Winesburg, Ohio" is the portrayal of a fictitious American town and its inhabitants. "Winesburg, Ohio" is a collection of connected short stories depicting a variety of themes of rural American life. Heralded for its beautiful realism, "Winesburg, Ohio", is a classic collection of American stories whose influence upon American literature is considered to be nothing short of profound. [via]
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Winesburg, Ohio
by Irving Howe, Sherwood Anderson

ISBN 1598186809 (1-59818-680-9)
Softcover, Alan Rodgers Books

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Book summary:
No sooner did Winesburg, Ohio make its appearance than a number of critical labels were fixed on it: the revolt against the village, the espousal of sexual freedom, the deepening of American realism. Such tags may once have had their point, but by now they seem dated and stale. The revolt against the village (about which Anderson was always ambivalent) has faded into history. The espousal of sexual freedom would soon be exceeded in boldness by other writers. And as for the effort to place Winesburg, Ohio in a tradition of American realism, that now seems dubious. Only rarely is the object of Anderson's stories social verisimilitude, or the "photographing" of familiar appearances, in the sense, say, that one might use to describe a novel by Theodore Dreiser or Sinclair Lewis. Only occasionally, and then with a very light touch, does Anderson try to fill out the social arrangements of his imaginary town -- although the fact that his stories are set in a mid-American place like Winesburg does constitute an important formative condition. [via]
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- Winesburg, Ohio: ISBN 1598186809 (1-59818-680-9)
  Softcover, Alan Rodgers Books
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The World's Great Classics

ISBN 0717200019 (0-7172-0001-9)
Hardcover, Xs Books

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Book summary:
Odyssey, The: The World's Great Classics, by Homer; tr. by S.H. Butcher and Andrew Lang [via]
More editions of The World's Great Classics:
- The World's Great Classics: ISBN 0717200019 (0-7172-0001-9)
  Hardcover, Xs Books