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books tagged “social commentary” (Social commentary)
books tagged “social commentary”
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found Thereby Lewis Carroll, John TennielISBN 0451527747 (0-451-52774-7)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There'Book summary:That Alice. When she's not traipsing after a rabbit into Wonderland, she's gallivanting off into the topsy-turvy world behind the drawing-room looking glass. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's masterful and zany sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she makes more eccentric acquaintances, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Queen, and a somewhat grumpy Humpty Dumpty. Through a giant and elaborate chess game, Alice explores this odd country, where one must eat dry biscuits to quench thirst, and run like the wind to stay in one place. As in life, Alice must stay on her toes to learn the rules of this game. Through the Looking Glass immediately took its rightful place beside its partner on the shelf of eternal classics. And luckily for generations of enraptured children, Carroll was again able to persuade John Tenniel to create the fantastic woodblock engravings that have become so indelibly associated with the Alice stories. For almost 130 years, Alice's curious adventures have amused, perplexed, and delighted readers, young and old. This gorgeous, deluxe boxed set of both volumes contains engravings from Tenniel's original woodblocks that were discovered in a London bank in 1985, and reproduced for the first time here. "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures?'" What indeed? (All ages) [via]
More editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There:
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There: ISBN 0451523202 (0-451-52320-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There: ISBN 0451527747 (0-451-52774-7)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There: ISBN 0451523202 (0-451-52320-2)
Andersen's Fairy Talesby Hans Christian AndersenISBN 0451521072 (0-451-52107-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Arrowsmithby Sinclair Lewis, E. L. DoctorowISBN 0451526910 (0-451-52691-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Arrowsmith'Book summary:As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to draw upon for Arrowsmith.Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher. Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life. [via]
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The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopinby Kate Chopin, Barbara H. SolomonISBN 0451524489 (0-451-52448-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopin'Book summary:The Awakening tells of a wife who discovers the strength of her own sexuality and tries to wrench it from the hands of a patriarchal society- and her upper-class Cajun family.This and Chopin's other short stories are standard-setting masterpieces. [via]
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Babbittby Sinclair LewisISBN 0451527089 (0-451-52708-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Babbitt'Book summary:A satire on the small-town American business man. [via]
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The Beautiful and Damnedby F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay PariniISBN 0451526643 (0-451-52664-3)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beautiful and Damned'Book summary:One of Fitzgerald's best-known works, this glittering novel is set against an era of intoxicating excitement and ruinous excess. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this is a scathing, ironic tale whose fictional couple parallels the real-life relationship of Fitzgerald and his wife, from its romantic beginnings to its tragic end. It remains to this day a devastating portrait of insatiable greed, ruthless ambition, and wasted talent. [via]
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Becoming Humanby Valerie J. FreireichISBN 0451453964 (0-451-45396-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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Bleak Houseby Charles Dickens, Elizabeth McCrackenISBN 0451528697 (0-451-52869-7)
Softcover, Signet
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bleak House'Book summary:Bleak House is a satirical look at the Byzantine legal system in London as it consumes the minds and talents of the greedy and nearly destroys the lives of innocents--a contemporary tale indeed. Dickens's tale takes us from the foggy dank streets of London and the maze of the Inns of Court to the peaceful countryside of England. Likewise, the characters run from murderous villains to virtuous girls, from a devoted lover to a "fallen woman," all of whom are affected by a legal suit in which there will, of course, be no winner. The first-person narrative related by the orphan Esther is particularly sweet. The articulate reading by the acclaimed British actor Paul Scofield, whose distinctive broad English accent lends just the right degree of sonority and humor to the text, brings out the color in this classic social commentary disguised as a Victorian drama. However, to abridge Dickens is, well, a Dickensian task, the results of which make for a story in which the author's convoluted plot lines and twists of fate play out in what seems to be a fast-forward format. Listeners must pay close attention in order to keep up with the multiple narratives and cast of curious characters, including the memorable Inspector Bucket and Mr. Guppy. Fortunately, the publisher provides a partial list of characters on the inside jacket. (Running time: 3 hours; 2 cassettes) [via]
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The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett, Manuel Komroff, John BayleyISBN 0451527348 (0-451-52734-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Brothers Karamazov'Book summary:A tragedy of Shakespearean force and intensity, Dostoyevsky's drama of parricide and family rivalry chronicles the murder of depraved landowner Fyodor Karamazov and the subsequent investigation and trial. Extensive notes explain the many literary and topical allusions and provide background information. [via]
Candide, Zadig, and Other Storiesby Voltaire, Donald Murdoch Frame, John IversonISBN 0451528093 (0-451-52809-3)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Candide, Zadig and Selected Storiesby Voltaire, Francoise M. DevoltaireISBN 0451524268 (0-451-52426-8)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Colour of Magicby Terry PratchettISBN 0451451120 (0-451-45112-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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The Communist Manifestoby Friedrich Engels, K. MarxISBN 0451527100 (0-451-52710-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Communist Manifesto'Book summary:"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles. [via]
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Dublinersby James Joyce, Edna O'BrienISBN 0451525434 (0-451-52543-4)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dubliners'Book summary:In these masterful stories, steeped in realism, joyce creates an exacting portrait of his native city, showing how it reflects the general decline of irish culture and civilization. Joyce compels attention by the power of its unique vision of the world, its controlling sense of the truths of human experience [via]
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Elmer Gantry: Library Editionby Sinclair LewisISBN 0451522516 (0-451-52251-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Frankensteinby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Walter James MillerISBN 0451527712 (0-451-52771-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frankenstein'Book summary:Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image & but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates. [via]
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Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheusby Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyISBN 0451523369 (0-451-52336-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus'Book summary:Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image & but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates. [via]
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Frankenstein/Dracula/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Bram StokerISBN 0451523636 (0-451-52363-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frankenstein/Dracula/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'Book summary:Three horror classicswith an introduction by Stephen King[via]
Some of literatures most popular and enduring horror icons in one indispensable tome.
@NotoriousDOC Just did a bit-torrent-style grave robbery. My new man will be an artful collage. Also, good conversation starter.
Its alive! Id better beat it over the head repeatedly with a fire extinguisher.
So sometimes you build something, and it gets away. Theyre gonna can me at the university if they find out about this.
From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or LessMore editions of Frankenstein/Dracula/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
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Great Expectationsby Charles DickensISBN 0451526716 (0-451-52671-6)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Expectations'Book summary:An absorbing mystery as well as a morality tale, the story of Pip, a poor village lad, and his expectations of wealth is Dickens at his most deliciously readable. The cast of characters includes kindly Joe Gargery, the loyal convict Abel Magwitch and the haunting Miss Havisham. If you have heartstrings, count on them being tugged. [via]
More editions of Great Expectations:
- Great Expectations: ISBN 0451517598 (0-451-51759-8)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics - Great Expectations: ISBN 0451525248 (0-451-52524-8)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics - Great Expectations: ISBN 0451523598 (0-451-52359-8)
Hardcover, New Amer Library - Great Expectations: ISBN 0451526716 (0-451-52671-6)
Softcover, Signet Classic
- Great Expectations: ISBN 0451517598 (0-451-51759-8)
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Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan SwiftISBN 0451527321 (0-451-52732-1)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gulliver's Travels'Book summary:On two voyages, an Englishman becomes shipwrecked in a land where people are six inches high, and stranded in a land of giants. [via]
History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrewsby Henry FieldingISBN 0451518195 (0-451-51819-5)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar WildeISBN 0451518993 (0-451-51899-3)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Importance of Being Earnest'Book summary:Wilde was both a glittering wordsmith and a social outsider. His drama emerges out of these two perhaps contradictory identities, combining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation. This book includes "Lady Windermere's Fan", "Salome", "A Woman of No Importance", "An Ideal Husband", "A Florentine Tragedy" and "The Importance of Being Earnest", which appears in full with the 'Grigsby' scene which originally made up the fourth act. [via]
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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Playsby Oscar Wilde, Sylvan BarnetISBN 0451525051 (0-451-52505-1)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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The Invisible Manby H. G. WellsISBN 0451528522 (0-451-52852-2)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Invisible Man'Book summary:This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows. [via]
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Jane Eyreby Charlotte Brontë, Erica JongISBN 0451526554 (0-451-52655-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jane Eyre'Book summary:"Jane Eyre," Charlotte Brontë's most beloved novel, describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane Eyre's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Ever since its publication in 1847, "Jane Eyre" has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. "Jane Eyre" lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman's quest for self-respect. "At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Brontë." -Virginia Woolf [via]
More editions of Jane Eyre:
- Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451511174 (0-451-51117-4)
Softcover, Signet - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451513479 (0-451-51347-9)
Softcover, Signet - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451514653 (0-451-51465-3)
Softcover, Signet - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451515560 (0-451-51556-0)
Softcover, Signet - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451518845 (0-451-51884-5)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451523326 (0-451-52332-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada) - Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451526554 (0-451-52655-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- Jane Eyre: ISBN 0451511174 (0-451-51117-4)
Joseph Andrewsby Henry FieldingISBN 0451520300 (0-451-52030-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Jude the Obscureby Thomas HardyISBN 0451527259 (0-451-52725-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jude the Obscure'Book summary:Novel tracing Jude Fawley's life from his aspirations of intellectual freedom to his early death. [via]
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Les Miserables a New Unabridged Translationby Victor HugoISBN 0451525264 (0-451-52526-4)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Les Miserables a New Unabridged Translation'Book summary:Victor Hugo's towering novel of Jean Valjean, his unjust imprisonment, and his lifelong flight from a relentless police officer.[via]More editions of Les Miserables a New Unabridged Translation:
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A Little Princessby Frances Hodgson Burnett, Lynne Sharon SchwartzISBN 0451525094 (0-451-52509-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Little Princess'Book summary:[via]Written by British-born author Frances Hodgson Burnett and first published in 1905, A Little Princess tells the story of young Sara Crewe, privileged daughter of a wealthy diamond merchant. All the other girls at Miss Minchin's school treat Sara as if she truly were a princess. But when Captain Crewe's fortune is sadly lost, Sara's luck changes. Suddenly she is treated no better than a scullery maid. Her own fierce determination to maintain her dignity and remain a princess inside has intrigued and delighted readers for almost a hundred years, even inspiring a recent popular feature film. -
Madame Bovaryby Gustave Flaubert, Mildred Marmur, Robin MorganISBN 0451528204 (0-451-52820-4)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Madame Bovary'Book summary:Novel in which a woman defies the standards of conventional French society. [via]
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Mansfield Parkby Jane AustenISBN 0451526295 (0-451-52629-5)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mansfield Park'Book summary:Though Jane Austen was writing at a time when Gothic potboilers such as Ann Ward Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto were all the rage, she never got carried away by romance in her own novels. In Austen's ordered world, the passions that ruled Gothic fiction would be horridly out of place; marriage was, first and foremost, a contract, the bedrock of polite society. Certain rules applied to who was eligible and who was not, how one courted and married and what one expected afterwards. To flout these rules was to tear at the basic fabric of society, and the consequences could be terrible. Each of the six novels she completed in her lifetime are, in effect, comic cautionary tales that end happily for those characters who play by the rules and badly for those who don't. In Mansfield Park, for example, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal. The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons.
Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals. Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way. Describing the switch in Edmund's affections from Mary to Fanny, she writes: "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that everyone may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people." What does not vary is the pleasure with which new generations come to Jane Austen. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Middlemarchby George EliotISBN 0451529170 (0-451-52917-0)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Middlemarch'Book summary:With sure and subtle touch, Eliot paints a luminous and spacious landscape of life in a provincial town, interweaving her themes with a proliferation of characters: an innocent idealist; a self-defeated young doctor; a naive young woman; and a cold man, who "lives too much with the dead". [via]
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The Misanthrope and Other Playsby MoliereISBN 0451524152 (0-451-52415-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Misanthrope and Other Plays'Book summary:Written during the highly successful final years of his life, the plays contained in this edition represent the pinnacle of Moliere's artistry and the most profound demonstration of his vision of humanity: "The Misanthrope," "The Doctor in Spite of Himself," a hilarious example of Molière's long-standing skepticism of the medical profession, "The Miser," "The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman," "The Impostures of Scapin," "The Learned Women," and "The Imaginary Invalid," the play that Molière appeared in only hours before his death. These works combine all the traditional elements of comedy-wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire, with a certain deep understanding of character that Molière was notorious for. His highly popular work, "The Misanthrope," satirizes the hypocrisies of aristocratic French society, and paints an accurate picture of the upper-class world in which Molière, looked down upon as a playwright, was ultimately denied membership to. [via]
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Nectar in a Sieveby Kamala Markandaya, Indira GanesanISBN 0451528239 (0-451-52823-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nectar in a Sieve'Book summary:Named Notable Book of 1955 by the American Library Association, this is the very moving story of a peasant woman in a primitive village in India whose whole life was a gallant and persistent battle to care for those she loved.
"Comparable in many ways to Cry, the Beloved Country...if anything...better." (Saturday Evening Post) [via]More editions of Nectar in a Sieve:
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Northanger Abbeyby Jane Austen, Margaret DrabbleISBN 0451526368 (0-451-52636-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Northanger Abbey'Book summary:Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Of all her novels, this one is the most explicitly literary in that it is primarily concerned with books and with readers. In it, Austen skewers the novelistic excesses of her day made popular in such 18th-century Gothic potboilers as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly satirical twist. Consider Austen's introduction of her heroine: we are told on the very first page that "no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." The author goes on to explain that Miss Morland's father is a clergyman with "a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters." Furthermore, her mother does not die giving birth to her, and Catherine herself, far from engaging in "the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush" vastly prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes.
Catherine grows up to be a passably pretty girl and is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a family friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to visit their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Austen amuses herself and us as Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful portents in the most wonderfully prosaic events. But Austen is after something more than mere parody; she uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of "horrid" novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society, for nothing Catherine imagines could possibly rival the hypocrisy she experiences at the hands of her supposed friends. In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Oliver Twistby Charles DickensISBN 0451523512 (0-451-52351-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Oliver Twist'Book summary:A young boy flees from an orphanage to London, only to be captured by thieves. [via]
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One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovichby Alexander SolzhenitsynISBN 0451527097 (0-451-52709-7)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich'Book summary:The extraordinary "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is one of the most significant and outspoken literary documents ever to come out of Soviet Russia. A brutal depiction of life in a Stalinist camp and a moving tribute to man's triumph of will over relentless dehumanization, this is Alexander Sotzhenitsyn's first novel to win international acclaim. The Soviet Union eventually revoked the author's citizenship and had him deported, and he only returned recently after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. [via]
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One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovichby Ralph Parker, Alexander SolzhenitsynISBN 0451523105 (0-451-52310-5)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich'Book summary:A graphic picture of life in a Stalinist work camp. [via]
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Pere Goriotby Honore De Balzac, Henry ReedISBN 0451521900 (0-451-52190-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pere Goriot'Book summary:Nobody writes about money like Balzac, and his classic chronicle of a young man from the provinces clawing his way to success in 19th century Paris, even as an older man is victimized by the same milieu, shrewdly captures the financial dimension of so much that goes on between people. The boarding house in which the two protagonists live is a microcosm of their world, and Goriot's treatment by his daughters would make Lear blanch. [via]
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Plunkitt of Tammany Hallby William L. Riordon, George Washington PlunkittISBN 0451526201 (0-451-52620-1)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Plunkitt of Tammany Hall'Book summary:This classic work offers the unblushing, unvarnished wit and wisdom of one of the most fascinating figures ever to play the American political game and win. George Washington Plunkitt rose from impoverished beginnings to become ward boss of the Fifteenth Assembly District in New York, a key player in the powerhouse political team of Tammany Hall, and a millionaire.[via]
In a series of utterly frank talks given at his headquarters at Grazianos bootblack stand inside the New York County Court House, he revealed to a sharp-eared and sympathetic reporter named William L. Riordon the secrets of political success as practiced and perfected by Tammany Hall titans.
The result is not only a volume that reveals more about our political system than does a shelf load of civics textbooks, but also an irresistible portrait of a man who would feel happily at home playing ball with todays lobbyists and kingmakers, trading votes for political and financial favors.
Doing for twentieth-century America what Machiavelli did for Renaissance Italy, and as entertaining as it is instructive, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is essential reading for those who prefer twenty-twenty vision to rose-colored glasses in viewing how our government works and why.
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Poems by Robert Frostby Robert Frost, William PritchardISBN 0451527879 (0-451-52787-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Poems by Robert Frost'Book summary:100th Anniversary Edition
Poems by Robert Frost A Boys Will and North of Boston
The publication of A Boys Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914) marked the debut of Robert Frost as a major talent and established him as the true poetic voice of New England. Four of his volumes would win the Pulitzer Prize before his death in 1963, and his body of work has since become an integral part of the American national heritage.
This is the only edition to present these two classics in their original form. A Boys Will introduced readers to Frosts unmistakable poetic voice, and in North of Boston, we find two of his most famous poems, Mending Wall and The Death of the Hired Man. With an introduction by distinguished critic and Amherst professor William H. Pritchard and an afterword by poet and critic Peter Davison, this centennial edition stands as a complete and vital introduction to the work of the quintessential modern American poet.
Introduction by William H. Pritchard
Afterword by Peter Davison
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The Possessedby Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Andrew R. MacAndrew, Marc SlonimISBN 0451524861 (0-451-52486-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Possessed'Book summary:The Possessed (In Russian: 5AK, tr. Besy), also translated as The Devils or Demons, is an 1872 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Possessed is an extremely political book, and is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoevsky casts a critical eye on both the left-wing idealists, exposing their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences. This form of intellectual conservativism tied to the Slavophil movement of Dostoevsky's day, is seen to have continued on into its modern manifestation in individuals like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Dostoevsky's novels focusing on the idea that utopias and positivist ideas, in being utilitarian, were unrealistic and unobtainable. The book has five primary ideological characters: Verkhovensky, Shatov, Stavrogin, Stepan Trofimovich, and Kirilov. Through their philosophies, Dostoevsky describes the political chaos seen in 19th-Century Russia. [via]
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The Princeby Niccolo MachiavelliISBN 0451527461 (0-451-52746-1)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prince'Book summary:The most controversial book ever written on the subject of powerFor over four hundred years, The Prince has been the basic handbook of politics, statesmanship, and power. Written by the most successful statesman of his time, this fascinating document remains as pertinent today as when it first appeared. The result is a highly readable, witty--and devilishly shrewd--formula that has long been required reading for everyone interested in politics and power.* The acclaimed Oxford University Press edition--now repackaged for Signet Classics* A world-famous translation by Luigi Ricci [via]
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The Prince and the Pauperby Mark TwainISBN 0451528352 (0-451-52835-2)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prince and the Pauper'Book summary:100th anniversary edition[via]
Two boys: the same age, almost the same face. The one difference: Tom Canty is a child of the London slums; Edward Tudor is heir to the throne. How insubstantial this difference is becomes clear when a chance encounter leads to an exchange of clothing and of roles...More editions of The Prince and the Pauper:
Prince and the Pauper, and a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courtby Mark TwainISBN 0451516281 (0-451-51628-1)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Reaper Manby Terry PratchettISBN 0451451686 (0-451-45168-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Reaper Man'Book summary:When the mortals come up with the perfect strategy for destroying the immortals, and soon all that stands between the immortals and a certain doom is the last surviving truthspeaker. [via]
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Richard IIby Kenneth MuirISBN 0451522176 (0-451-52217-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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Richard IIby William Shakespeare, Kenneth MuirISBN 0451522680 (0-451-52268-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Richard II'Book summary:The New Penguin Shakespeare offers a complete edition of the plays and poems. Each volume has been prepared from the original texts and includes an introduction, a list of further reading, a full and helpful commentary, and a short account of the textual problems of the play. [via]
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The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel HawthorneISBN 0451526082 (0-451-52608-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Scarlet Letter'Book summary:This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 edition. Excerpt: ...scholar-like renown still lived in Oxford, was considered by his more fervent admirers as little less than a heavenly-ordained apostle, destined, should he live and labor for the ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds for the now feeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian faith. About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently' begun to fail. By those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp. Some declared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough, that the world was not worthy to be any onger trodden by his feet. He himself, on the other hand, with characteristic humility, avowed his belief, that, if Providence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth. With all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline, there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain. Such was the young clergyman's condition, and so imminent the prospect that his dawning light would be extinguished, all untimely, when Koger Chillingworth made his advent to the town. His first entry on the scene, few people... [via]
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The Scarlet Pimpernelby OrczyISBN 0451527623 (0-451-52762-3)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'Book summary:An Englishman assumes many disguises in order to rescue members of the French royalty from the terrorists during the French Revolution. [via]
Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emersonby Ralph Waldo Emerson, William H. Gilman, Charles JohnsonISBN 0451529073 (0-451-52907-3)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emersonby William H. GilmanISBN 0451524047 (0-451-52404-7)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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A Tale of Two Citiesby Charles DickensISBN 0451523016 (0-451-52301-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Tale of Two Cities'Book summary:Written at a point of crisis in his life, A Tale of Two Cities is the embodiment of Dickens' own passions and fears: the revolution which engulfs the characters symbolizes his own psychological revolution, and the three main characters become projections of Dickens himself. [via]
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Tess of the D'Urbervillesby Thomas HardyISBN 0451525469 (0-451-52546-9)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'Book summary:Thomas Hardy broke the boundaries of the acceptable Victorian heroine with "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy, Tess is a woman whose intense vitality flares unforgettably against the bleak background of a dying rural society. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and indelibly poignant beauty. This classic novel remains a triumph of literary art and a timeless commentary on the human condition. [via]
Testamentby Valerie J. FreireichISBN 0451454596 (0-451-45459-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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Three by Flannery O'Connorby Flannery O'ConnorISBN 0451525140 (0-451-52514-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Three by Flannery O'Connor'Book summary:The quintessential Southern writer, O'Connor wrote fiercely comic, powerful fiction. This anthology includes the masterpieces Wise Blood, The Violent Bear it Away, and Everything that Rises Must Converge. [via]
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Time Machineby H. G. Wells, Greg BearISBN 0451528557 (0-451-52855-7)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Time Machine'Book summary:"I've had a most amazing time...." So begins the Time Traveller's astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era-and the story that launched H.G. Wells's successful career and earned him the reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine's lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races-the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks-who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well. Published in 1895, this masterpiece of invention captivated readers on the threshold of a new century. Thanks to Wells's expert storytelling and provocative insight, The Time Machine will continue to enthrall readers for generations to come. [via]
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The Tragedy of King Richard the Second: With New and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliographyby William ShakespeareISBN 0451527194 (0-451-52719-4)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tragedy of King Richard the Second: With New and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliography'Book summary:One of Shakespeare's finest history plays, Richard II deals with one of the most sensitive and politically explosive issues of its day--the rights and wrongs of deposing a legitimately appointed king. Forerunner to the two parts of Henry IV, the play deals with the abdication of King Richard II in 1399, the subsequent succession of Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV, and Richard's death in the spring of 1400. But the play has been celebrated above and beyond its stature as historical drama. Richard II begins with a portrait of Richard as a pompous, arrogant and self-regarding sovereign, with little sense of his people or his political responsibilities. As he consistently miscalculates in his attempts to destroy Bolingbroke, and watches his own power wane, he becomes a far more appealing, Hamlet-like figure, more interested in "talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs", and "sad stories of the death of kings". Richard's speeches become increasingly lyrical and poetic as his supporters desert him, until he finally takes on the stature of the pilloried Christ in the climax of the play, the deposition scene, one of the most politically risky scenes in all of Shakespeare. The play remains most famous for John of Gaunt's "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle" speech, but historians believe that the play was also performed in the streets of London in 1601 in support of the Earl of Essex's attempt to depose Elizabeth I. Whilst the plot failed, it showed the power of the theatre of the time, and the politically controversial nature of Shakespeare's play. --Jerry Brotton [via]
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The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilsonby Mark Twain, Wright MorrisISBN 0451523741 (0-451-52374-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson'Book summary:A slave of mixed blood substitutes her son with her master's son. [via]
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Twenty Years at Hull-Houseby Jane AddamsISBN 0451527399 (0-451-52739-9)
Softcover, Signet
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Twenty Years at Hull-House'Book summary:While on a trip to East London in 1883, Jane Addams witnessed a distressing scene late one night: masses of poor people were bidding on rotten vegetables that were unsalable anywhere else.
Their pale faces were dominated by that most unlovely of human expressions, the cunning and shrewdness of the bargain-hunter who starves if he cannot make a successful trade, and yet the final impression was not of ragged, tawdry clothing nor of pinched and sallow faces, but of myriads of hands, empty, pathetic, nerveless, and workworn, showing white in the uncertain light of the street, and clutching forward for food which was already unfit to eat.
This scene haunted Addams for the next two years as she traveled through Europe, and she hoped to find a way to ease such suffering. Five years later, she visited Toynbee Hall, a London settlement house, and resolved to replicate the experiment in the U.S. On September 18, 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr moved into the second floor of a rundown mansion in Chicago's West Side. From the outset, they imagined Hull-House as a "center for a higher civic and social life" in the industrial districts of the city. Addams, Starr, and several like-minded individuals lived and worked among the poor, establishing (among other things) art classes, discussion groups, cooperatives, a kindergarten, a coffee house, a lending library, and a gymnasium. In a time when many well-to-do Americans were beginning to feel threatened by immigrants, Hull-House embraced them, showed them the true meaning of democracy, and served as a center for philanthropic efforts throughout Chicago.
Hull-House also provided an outlet for the energies of the first generation of female college graduates, who were educated for work yet prevented from doing it. In some respects, however, Addams's impressive work, often hailed by historians as "revolutionary," was nothing of the sort. She embraced the sexual stereotypes of her day, and, though she was clearly an independent woman, soothed public fears by acting primarily in the traditional roles of nurturer and caregiver. Hull-House was a rousing success, and it inspired others to follow in Addams's footsteps.
Though Twenty Years at Hull-House is meant to be an autobiography, it is Hull-House itself that stands in the spotlight. Addams devotes the first third of the book to her upbringing and influences, but the remainder focuses on the organization she built--and the benefits accruing to those who work with the poor as well as to the poor themselves. At times Addams's prose is difficult to follow, but her ideals and her actions are truly inspiring. A classic work of history--and a model for today's would-be philanthropists. --Sunny Delaney [via]
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Vanity Fairby William Makepeace ThackeryISBN 0451524896 (0-451-52489-6)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Vanity Fair'Book summary:The story of English society in the early nineteenth century. [via]
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Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience"by Henry David ThoreauISBN 0451527070 (0-451-52707-0)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Walden Or, Life in the Woods and "on the Duty of Civil Disobedience"'Book summary:A philosophy of life and observations on government included in these famous books. [via]
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The War of the Worldsby H. G. WellsISBN 0451522761 (0-451-52276-1)
Softcover, Signet Classic
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The War of the Worlds'Book summary:This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's..."
Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler [via]
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