Harper & Brothers

The education of an amphibian -- Knowledge and understanding -- The desert -- Ozymandias, the Utopia that failed -- Liberty, quality, machinery -- Censorship and spoken literature -- Canned fish -- Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow -- Hyperion to a satyr -- Mother -- Adonis and the alphabet -- Miracle in Lebanon -- Usually destroyed -- Famagusta or Paphos -- Faith, taste and history -- Doodles in a dictionary -- Gesualdo: variations on a musical...

The American Claimant is about Americans, the way they view themselves, the way they are viewed by others through the eyes of a British nobleman. Even though a century has passed since the book was written, most of the acute observations are as true today as when it was written. A young English nobleman, Viscount Berkeley, has determined to renounce his aristocratic station, emigrate to America and make his way by ability alone. His place in England...

The tale of a pampered ne'er-do-well, whose mother and sisters sacrifice themselves so that he may enjoy a genteel life.

First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America - an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peace-time optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time in a work which endures...

John Fenwick is a portrait artist who gets a commission to paint the beautiful Eugenie de Pastourelles in London; his wife Phoebe wants to go with him, but he feels he needs his freedom to paint to his potential. He goes alone and, of course, falls in love with her (her husband has deserted her). Phoebe learns what's going on and, with their daughter, leaves Fenwick and goes to Canada. Complications arise after Eugenie's husband returns to the scene...