Catalog Search Results
21) Ethan Frome
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English
Description
One of literature's keenest social critics, Pulitzer Prize winning author Edith Wharton weaves a tragic small-town tale of epic proportions in this masterful novella. Physically disfigured and trapped in a loveless marriage to a sickly older woman, Ethan Frome is a broken man. He lives a desolate, impoverished life in the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, bound by an unassailable sense of duty. But long ago, Ethan dreamed of something beyond his...
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English
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A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma family, the Joads, who...
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"In an overgrown churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon an orphan named Pip. The convict terrifies the young boy and threatens to kill him unless Pip helps further his escape. Later, Pip finds himself in the ruined garden where he meets the bitter and crazy Miss Havisham and her foster child Estella, with whom he immediately falls in love. After a secret benefactor gives him a fortune, Pip moves to London, where he cultivates great expectations...
25) Jane Eyre
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English
Description
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a richer life than that traditionally allowed women...
26) Cannery row
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English
Description
This is a segment of the underworld on the California coast near Monterey. A group of rootless men, who took jobs only as a last resort, lived contentedly in an old warehouse; nearby Dora ran her house of prostitution with business efficiency, and in his marine laboratory Doc prepared the specimens he collected along the shore. Love for Doc was the sentiment that all Cannery Row shared, and the climax was the fearful birthday party given for him.
27) The pearl
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English
Description
Reworking an ancient legend, Steinbeck created a powerful parable of modern man's preoccupation with materialism, money, and power. The story is of Keno, a poor fisherman who finds a great, luminous pearl. Although he is sure the fortune it represents will solve all of his problems, Keno eventually realizes that the pearl has marked his life forever.
28) The red pony
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English
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Four episodes in the life of Jody, a boy on a California ranch. Contents: The Gift; Great Mountains; The Promise; Leader of the people.
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English
Description
Entranced by the perfection of his recently painted portrait, the youthful Dorian Gray expresses a wish that the figure on the canvas could age and change in his place. When his wish comes true, the portrait becomes his hideous secret as he follows a downward trajectory of decadence and cruelty that leaves its traces only in the portrait’s degraded image. Wilde’s unforgettable portrayal of a Faustian bargain and its consequences is narrated with...
30) Four comedies
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Series
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English
Description
The four plays selected for this collection--The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest--represent a significant stage in the development of the world's greatest dramatist.
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English
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Description
The powerful drama of Willy Loman & his tragic end. Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has...
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Jane Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for ahusband, but neither Elinor's reason nor Marianne's passion can lead them to perfect happiness -- as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous...
34) The 13 clocks
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English
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With the help of his magical protector, Golux, Prince Zorn performs impossible tasks to win the hand of Princess Saralina.
35) East of Eden
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English
Description
Adam and Charles Trask are raised by their stern father to become soldiers. But even as boys, they are at war. Adam's gentle passivity enrages the fiercely competitive Charles, who is sure his father favors Adam. Cathy Ames is beautiful but amoral; she uses the world to get what she wants. When Adam falls under her spell, she becomes a force that will poison both brothers and the future generations of two families.
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English
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In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive...
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English
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A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Steinbeck's brilliant short novels
Collected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels. From the tale of commitment, loneliness and hope in Of Mice and Men, to the tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society in Cannery Row, to The Pearl's examination of the fallacy of the American dream, Steinbeck stories of...
Collected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels. From the tale of commitment, loneliness and hope in Of Mice and Men, to the tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society in Cannery Row, to The Pearl's examination of the fallacy of the American dream, Steinbeck stories of...
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English
Description
The classic tale of a group of English school boys who are left stranded on an unpopulated island, and who must confront not only the defects of their society but the defects of their own nature. Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature.
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English
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Chingachgook and Uncas are the last living members of the great Mahican tribe. Hawk eye, a colonial scout, is their companion and loyal friend. In the midst of the French and Indian War, the three take great risks to lead the two daughters of a British colonel to safety through the battle-torn northern wilderness. When the girls are captured by the vicious Huron tribe, Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawk eye risk their very lives to rescue them.
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English
Description
When Phileas Fogg read in his newspaper that it was possible to travel around the world in only eighty days, his friends laughed. "It can't be done!" said one. So Phileas Fogg set out to prove it could. He insisted he was prepared for anything but he couldn't have expected to be chased around the world by a policeman. Detective Fix is convinced Fogg has stolen money and he's determined to stop him at any cost.