An abridged version of Dicken's story of the orphan forced to practice thievery and live a life of crime in nineteenth-century London. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

Eliza Harris, a slave whose child is to be sold, escapes her beloved home on the Shelby plantation in Kentucky and heads North, eludes the hired slave catchers and is aided by the underground railroad. Another slave, Uncle Tom, is sent "down the river" for sale and ultimately endures a martyr's death under the whips of Simon Legree's overseers.

A self-made American goes to Europe to enjoy his fortune and becomes engaged to a French widow from a noble family. Depicts the contrast between American and European culture.

"Hank Morgan awakens one morning to find he has been transported from nineteenth-century New England to sixth-century England and the reign of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Morgan brings to King Arthur's utopian court the ingenuity of the future, resulting in a culture clash that is at once satiric, anarchic, and darkly comic." --

Jude Fawley, an obscure member of the artisan class, aspires to become a minister and wages battle against enormous odds.

Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, began as Walt Whitman's collection of twelve unnamed poems, unique for their irregular line lengths and lack of rhyme. Whitman spent the remainder of his life re-writing the work, and republished the collection several times until it finally numbered over 400 poems. Leaves of Grass represents Whitman's views on life and philosophy, and love, and features some of his best known and loved poems including "O...

"Jane Austen's first novel--published posthumously in 1818--tells the story of Catherine Morland and her dangerously sweet nature, innocence, and sometime self-delusion. Though Austen's fallible heroine is repeatedly drawn into scrapes while vacationing at Bath and during her subsequent visit to Northanger Abbey, Catherine eventually triumphs, blossoming into a discerning woman who learns truths about love, life, and the heady power of literature....

"Joshua Slocum spent a lifetime at sea. He ran away from his Nova Scotia home at the age of 14 and for the next 35 years he sailed the world holding every shipboard rank. When a ship under his command was wrecked on the coast of Brazil in 1887, it seemed that his maritime career had ended in disgrace. Not one for retiring to earthly pastures, Slocum rebuilt a hundred- year-old sloop and set off for Boston in 1895 on the first single-handed circumnavigation...

"The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are two classic American adventure novels depicting the evolution of two dogs in the wild. The novels are in fact mirror images of one another, as Call of the Wild depicts Buck's journey from domestic to wild dog, while White Fang recounts White Fang's transformation from wild beast to domestic companion. Both convey powerful themes of redemption and survival that continue to affect readers even today.The...

"Sir Percy Blakeney lives a double life in the England of 1792: at home he is an idle fop and a leader of fashion, but abroad he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a master of disguise who saves aristocrats from the guillotine. When the revolutionary French state seeks to unmask him, Percy's estranged, independent wife, Marguerite, unwittingly sets their agent on her husband's track. Percy's escapades, and Marguerite's daring journey to France to save him...