The Arc
1) Nostromo
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Language
English
Description
Writing in 1904, Conrad invented a complex Central American country with a turbulent history and a potentially explosive population, ranging from the wealthy gringo running the Sulaco silver mine to the poorest worker loading cargo on the docks. Although the story teems with lively characters, the dazzling figure of Nostromo eclipses them all. A natural leader--brave, handsome, and incorruptible--he naturally becomes the epicenter of the revolution...
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English
Description
Swashbuckling British adventurers find triumph and tragedy in nineteenth-century Afghanistan in this novella J. M. Barrie called "the most audacious thing in fiction." While on tour in India, a British journalist encounters Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, two foolhardy drifters with a plan. Claiming they've exhausted all the schemes and odd jobs they could find in India, the two are in search of an even greater adventure. They tell the journalist...
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English
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"The seventh book in the chronology of the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, although it was the fifth book published. In this book Anne Shirley is married with six children, but the book focuses more on her new neighbor, the new Presbyterian minister John Meredith, as well as the interactions between Anne's and John Meredith's children." --
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English
Description
In this hard-hitting novel, first published in 1924, the murky personal relationship between an Englishwoman and an Indian doctor mirrors the troubled politics of colonialism. Adela Quested and her fellow British travelers, eager to experience the "real" India, develop a friendship with the urbane Dr. Aziz. While on a group outing, Adela and Dr. Aziz visit the Marabar caves together. As they emerge, Adela accuses the doctor of assaulting her. While...
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English
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Description
Moving from the industrial riots of discontented millworkers through to the unsought passions of a middle-class woman, and from religious crises of conscience to the ethics of naval mutiny, it poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Through the story of Margaret Hale, the middle-class southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skilfully explores issues of class and gender in the...
6) Sybil
Author
Publisher
Standard Ebooks
Pub. Date
2023
Language
English
Description
Benjamin Disraeli was a remarkable historical figure. Born into a Jewish family, he converted to Anglican Christianity as a child. He is now almost certainly most famous for his political career. Becoming a member of the British Parliament at the age of 33, he initially rose to prominence within the Conservative (“Tory”) party because of his clashes with the then Prime Minister
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English
Description
Forced by her parents' ambitions among her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess Durbeyfield attracts the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded, she finds work as a milkmaid, and her steadfast integrity is finally rewarded by the love of Angel Clare. Of all the great English novelists, no one writes more eloquently of tragic destiny than Hardy. With the innocent and powerless victim Tess, he creates profound sympathy for human frailty while passionately...
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English
Description
Upon its first appearance in 1895, Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure shocked Victorian critics and readers with a frank depiction of sexuality and an unbridled indictment of the institutions of marriage, education, and religion, reportedly causing one Angli-can bishop to order the book publicly burned. The experience so exhausted Hardy that he never wrote a work of fiction again. Rich in symbolism, Jude the Obscure is the story of Jude Fawley and his...
9) Lady Susan
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English
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Description
"Lady Susan was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed. An epistolary novel in 18th century style, it tells the story of the recently-widowed Lady Susan Vernon, intelligent but highly manipulative, who is intent on gaining financially secure relationships for herself and her wayward but shy teenage daughter Frederica"--Cover.
10) Mansfield Park
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Language
English
Appears on list
Description
At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. There she accepts her lowly status, and gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund. When the dazzling and sophisticated Henry and Mary Crawford arrive, Fanny watches as her cousins become embroiled in rivalry and sexual jealousy, she struggles to retain her...
11) Emma
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Language
English
Description
As daughter of the richest, most important man in the small provincial village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse is firmly convinced that it is her right--perhaps even her "duty"--To arrange the lives of others. Considered by most critics to be Austen's most technically brilliant achievement, "Emma" sparkles with ironic insights into self-deception, self-discovery, and the interplay of love and power.
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English
Description
Like few novels before it, The Woman in White thrilled readers across England when it debuted in 1860. It famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit road. Engaged as a drawing-master to beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his charming friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the...
14) Northanger Abbey
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Language
English
Description
Northanger Abbey was among the last of Jane Austen's novels to be published, in 1818, but the first to be written, mostly in 1798-9. Centred on the loves and friendships of Catherine Morland, an endearing young girl extremely fond of novel-reading, it remains the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's novels. During an eventful season in Bath, Catherine meets the sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney who invite her to stay at their father's...
15) Persuasion
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Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend La.
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English
Description
Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio's marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio's wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca's suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father's decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even...
17) Winnie-the-Pooh
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Language
English
Description
"The various adventures of Christopher Robin and his friends in which Pooh Bear uses a balloon to get honey, Piglet meets a Heffalump, and Eeyore has a birthday." --
18) Lesley Castle
Author
Series
Publisher
Hesperus
Pub. Date
2005.
Language
English
Description
In the realm of classic literature, the name of Leslie Castle often occupies a quieter corner, overshadowed by the towering works of authors such as Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. However, in the rich tapestry of literary history, Leslie Castle by Anne Isabella Thackeray (later known as Mrs. Ritchie) stands as a charming and insightful novella that deserves recognition for its unique narrative style, character development, and themes that resonate...
20) The tempest
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Language
English
Description
Prospero, exiled on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, raises a magical tempest to wash ashore a ship carrying the enemies who usurped his dukedom years ago -- his brother Antonio and Alonso, the king of Naples. Alonso's son Ferdinand is feared dead but has washed to another part of the island, where he meets and falls in love with Miranda. Prospero punishes the usurpers and regains his dukedom, as Miranda gains a royal husband.