Anton Lesser
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"A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most thrilling narratives in the whole range of the literature of fiction. Considered apart from all the other works of Dickens, it would entitle him to a very high rank among romancers. The total effect of the novel, both in construction and content, is remarkably strong. A careful re-reading will convince one that no event is superfluous, that every scene pictured, every character introduced, every mysterious,...
3) The Odyssey
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"The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse...
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Drawing on Charles Dickens's own, often difficult childhood, to create a compelling story of personal success, David Copperfield is edited with an introduction and notes by Jeremy Tambling in Penguin Classics.
David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are...
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"Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Left penniless by the death of his improvident father, young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the stupidly sadistic Wackford...
7) King Lear
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Shakespeare's tragedy of a royal father and his daughters is presented scene by scene in comic book format. As flies are to wanton boys, so are we to th' gods: they kill us for their sports, howls King Lear. In artist Ian Pollock's surreal interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the abstract wail of "the unaccomodated man" is dramatized in subtle shadings of the old king's anguish. Every line of dialogue is preserved, and every scene is illustrated...
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Begun as an ambitious project by the versatile English courtier, diplomat, philosopher, and author Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales follows a group of people on their pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Saint Thomas Becket. The Prologue introduces all of the pilgrims in great detail, and through these descriptions Chaucer provides the entire spectrum of social classes and professions of his time. When the group stops at an inn...
9) The Iliad
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Homer's classical account of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans from Agamemnon's visit by the priest Chryses to the burial of Hektor.
10) Tamar
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In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family.
11) Hard Times
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Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster in Cokestown, a northern English village beset by industrialism, runs his family and his school with a rigid adherence to facts, but his daughter's loveless marriage, his son's involvement with gambling and robbery, and his encounters with a variety of characters, force him to recognize the value of the human heart.
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The sensational bestselling story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness";...
13) Little Dorrit
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"Little Dorrit", originally serialized between 1855 and 1857, satirizes the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. This popular novel introduces a rich and memorable array of characters trying to navigate an often hostile capital symbolised by the Marshalsea gaol, where Dickens' own father had been imprisoned. This is a scathing social and political satire within a heart-warming story of love and devotion...Based on the world-famous...
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"Many of these fables are so well known they have given us everyday phrases such as 'sour grapes' and 'dog in the manger.' But even the rarer ones seem familiar, because their simple morals reflect all aspects of human nature. From the tortoise and the hare to the mouse and the lion, the timeless wisdom and wit of Aesop's fables are as entertaining as ever"--
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Thomas Hardy's first masterpiece, The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with a scene of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. A poor workman named Michael Henchard, in a fit of drunken rage, sells his wife and baby daughter to a stranger at a country fair. Stricken with remorse, Henchard forswears alcohol and works hard to become a prosperous businessman and the respected mayor of Casterbridge. But he cannot erase his past....
17) Othello
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Presents a guide to Shakespeare's "Othello", including text and audio from various productions and preformances that provide a context for the play and it characters.
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Following the dramatic finale of Season 3, Oxford's finest are picking up the pieces of their personal and professional lives. DC Endeavour Morse awaits the result of his Sergeant's Exam, while DI Fred Thursday and his wife Win struggle to cope with their children flying the next; Sam gone to the Army and the traumatized Joan, gone off to who knows where? But there are even greater challenges still to face.
The Summer of Love is emerging, and the...