Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Summary
"A swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, it is set in France during the 1620s and richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense. Dumas transforms major and minor historical figures into larger-than-life characters: the brave d'Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the...
Author
Summary
Orphaned and in a vulnerable social position, Diana Warwick decides to enter a marriage to protect herself from unwanted advances and unfair living conditions. After marrying a smart but manipulative politician, Diana quickly regrets her decision. Charming and intelligent, yet impulsive, Diana manages her miserable marriage by spending time with others, paying little mind to the social consequences it may warrant. After indiscreetly traveling with...
Author
Summary
Cyrano de Bergerac est une comédie héroïque écrite par Edmond Rostand en 1897. Elle raconte l'histoire de Cyrano, un homme brillant mais laid, qui tombe amoureux de Roxane, une belle cousine. Bien qu'il soit trop timide pour lui déclarer ses sentiments, il aide Christian, un ami plus beau mais moins intelligent, à séduire Roxane en lui écrivant des lettres d'amour. Cependant, lorsque Christian meurt au combat, Cyrano doit révéler la vérité...
Author
Summary
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's crowning achievement, is a tale of patricide & family rivalry that embodies the moral & spiritual dissolution of an entire society (Russia in the 1870s). It created a national furor comparable only to the excitement stirred by the publication, in 1866, of Crime & Punishment. To Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, & profligacy. Significantly,...
86) Sister Carrie
Author
Series
Summary
After leaving the country for Chicago, Caroline Meeber is seduced by a traveling salesman and then falls in love with a saloon manager.
87) Don Quixote
Author
Summary
""The final and greatest utterance of the human mind." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A founding work of modern Western literature, Cervantes' masterpiece has been translated into more than 60 languages and the novel's elderly knight, Don Quixote, and his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, rank among fiction's most recognized characters. This monumental parody of chivalric romances and epic of heroic idealism presents a strikingly contemporary narrative that also...
88) Sons and lovers
Author
Summary
Sons and Lovers is one of the landmark novels of the twentieth century. When it appeared in 1913, it was immediately recognized as the first great modern restatement of the oedipal drama, and it is now widely considered the major work of D. H. Lawrence's early period. This intensely autobiographical novel recounts the story of Paul Morel, a young artist growing to manhood in a British working-class family rife with conflict. The author's vivid evocation...
Author
Series
Summary
Chronicles the exploits of Becky Sharp, an unscrupulous young woman who is determined to achieve wealth and social success, and her sentimental companion, Amelia, who has fallen for a caddish soldier, in the classic novel set against the backdrop of English society in the early 1800s.
Author
Summary
Abraham Lincoln, the greatest of all American presidents, left us a vast legacy of writings, some of which are among the most famous in our history. Lincoln was a marvelous writer—from the humblest letter to his great speeches, including his inaugural addresses, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address. His sentences were so memorably crafted that many resonate across the years. "Fourscore and seven years ago," begins the Gettysburg...
91) The garden party
Author
Summary
A frivolous, wealthy family's garden party continues uninterrupted by the death of a working-class neighbor. Includes an analysis of the story and a biography of the author.
92) Candide
Author
Summary
Candide is about a man who believes in the philosophy that: "what happens, happens for the best in the end." that was taught to him by his personal philosopher Dr. Panlosss. Candide goes through many, many trials and everyone he meets has had something terrible happen to them. He searches the world over for his love Cundgonde. And in the end finds that the simplest things in life: love, friends, and health are all that matters.
93) Swann's way
Author
Series
Summary
Presents the first book of Proust's monumental work "Remembrance of Things Past", introducing such themes as the destructive force of obsessive love, the allure and the consequences of transgressive sex, and the selective eye that shapes memories.
94) Selected poems
Author
Series
Summary
Over 100 best-known, best-loved poems by one of America's foremost poets, reprinted from authoritative early editions. "The Snake," "Hope," "The Chariot," many more, display unflinching honesty, psychological penetration, and technical adventurousness that have delighted and impressed generations of poetry lovers. No comparable edition at this price. Index of first lines.
95) Moby Dick
Author
Summary
?Call me Ishmael? is the iconic opening line of Herman Melville?s classic American novel, Moby-Dick. Ishmael is a seaman aboard the whaling vessel, Pequod, under the vengeful captain, Ahab. Maniacally seeking retribution from the great white sperm whale called Moby-Dick--the whale responsible for the captain?s missing leg--Ahab leads the crew on a quest to kill the infamous beast.
Author
Series
Summary
Published to great acclaim and fierce controversy in 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment has left an indelible mark on global literature and our modern world, and is still known worldwide as the quintessential Russian novel. Readers of all backgrounds have debated its historical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions, probing the moral and ethical dilemmas that Dostoevsky so brilliantly stages throughout his narrative. Yet, at its heart, this...
Author
Series
Summary
A retelling of the medieval poem about a group of travelers on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and the tales they tell each other. With their astonishing diversity of tone and subject matter, The Canterbury Tales have become one of the touchstones of medieval literature. Translated here into modern English, these tales of a motley crowd of pilgrims drawn from all walks of life-from knight to nun, miller to monk-reveal a picture of English life in the fourteenth...
99) Barren ground
Author
Summary
The dramatic story of one woman's struggle to find her destiny, and herself, in Reconstruction-era Virginia.
In the years following the Civil War, joy is hard to come by for twenty-year-old Dorinda Oakley. The daughter of a struggling farmer in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Dorinda is an intelligent, independent, and passionate young woman who dreams of life outside of her poor community. For the past year, she has worked at Nathan Pedlar's...
100) The captive
Author
Summary
Remembrance of Things Past is one of the monuments of 20th-century literature. Neville Jason’s unabridged recording of the work runs to 150 hours. The Captive is the fifth of seven volumes. The Narrator’s obsessive love for Albertine makes her virtually a captive in his Paris apartment. He suspects she may be attracted to her own sex. Based on the translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff.