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1) Bleak House
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Bleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections - between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring society more imaginatively embodied, but nowhere either is the mixture of comedy and angry satire more deftly managed. Bleak House defies a single description. It...
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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...
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This grand old childhood classic relates a small-town boy's pranks and escapades with humor and wisdom that appeal to readers of every age. In addition to his everyday stunts (searching for buried treasure, trying to impress the adored Becky Thatcher), Tom experiences a dramatic turn of events when he witnesses a murder, runs away, and returns to attend his own funeral and testify in court.
4) Macbeth
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One night on the heath, the brave and respected general Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell that he will become king of Scotland. At first skeptical, he’s urged on by the ruthless, single-minded ambitions of Lady Macbeth, who suffers none of her husband’s doubt. But seeing the prophecy through to the bloody end leads them both spiralling into paranoia, tyranny, madness, and murder. This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those...
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While spending the summer in a resort on Grand Isle with her husband and children, Edna Pontellier begins a process of self-discovery, which only intensifies after she meets the charming Robert Lebrun. Yet, when Robert departs for Mexico and the summer holiday ends, Edna's newfound sense of independence leads her to isolate herself from New Orleans society and to reject her former lifestyle. Moving into a home of her own and devoting more time to...
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Lexile measure
620L
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One of the most popular and exciting adventure stories is now being reissued with vibrant, realistic paintings by a highly acclaimed artist and an introduction by award-winning author, Gary Paulsen. First published in 1903, this striking reissue is as relevant today as it was when it was first published. Black-and-white illustrations.
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness ..." The most famous and possibly the most popular of Dickens's novels, A Tale of Two Cities shows a master of dramatic narrative extracting gold from the ore of history. If the bloody tableau of the French Revolution were...
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A tour of Italy takes young Lucy Honeychurch out of her predictable life in Edwardian England and places her into a new world that even her chaperoning spinster aunt cannot control. Encountering everything from unlikely traveling companions to street violence, Lucy faces the greatest challenge in understanding her own shifting emotions toward a most unsuitable suitor.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts...
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Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s beloved classic Pride and Prejudice. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined...
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Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love - and its threatened loss - the...
14) The Iliad
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When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017--revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was "fresh, unpretentious and lean" (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)--critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer's other...
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Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. The work was Forster's first novel, and its success helped launch his lengthy and critically acclaimed career as a writer of literary fiction. Where Angels Fear to Tread, the title is drawn from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711), is a moving meditation on class, gender, social convention, and the grieving process.
Following the death of her husband, a widow named...
16) 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...
17) Persuasion
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Book Chat August 3: Balloons & Beer & Tea
Book Chat October 19: Department Stores and Navy Birthday
Romance
Book Chat October 19: Department Stores and Navy Birthday
Romance
Description
Anne Elliot lives at Kellynch Hall with her family, but when financial struggles set in they decide to move. Then her life is forever changed as she is reunited with Wentworth, a past fiancé who she never married. Through her journey, Anne may find that what she has been looking for was right in front of her the whole time.
18) Romeo and Juliet
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A classic Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo and Juliet is the tale of two star-crossed young lovers who dare to defy their feuding families, put aside all obstacles, and find happiness together - but at a tremendous cost. This grimly beautiful tale, set in Renaissance Italy, follows Romeo and Juliet from their fateful first meeting to their last. Manga Classics brings you this incredible manga version of William Shakespeare's most popular play, with FULL,...
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Eerie illustrations enhance a blood-curdling edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most-celebrated Sherlock Holmes mystery, bringing its delicious shivers to a new generation of readers. Is it true that a hellish hound is haunting the lonely moors, hunting down the hapless Baskervilles through the generations? If anyone can put this chilling legend to rest, it's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It seems the body of the latest owner of the Baskerville...
20) 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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