Catalog Search Results
Series
Summary
"More than 100,000 people escaped slavery in the American South by following the Underground Railroad, a complex network of secret routes and safe houses. This inexpensive compilation of firsthand accounts offers authentic insights into the Civil War era and African-American history with compelling narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and lesser-known refugees"--
163) Ivanhoe
Author
Formats
Summary
Ivanhoe, a trusted ally of Richard-the-Lion-Hearted, returns from the Crusades to reclaim the inheritance his father denied him. Rebecca, a vibrant, beautiful Jewish woman is defended by Ivanhoe against a charge of witchcraft--but it is Lady Rowena who is Ivanhoe's true love. The wicked Prince John plots to usurp England's throne, but two of the most popular heroes in all of English literature, Richard-the-Lion-Hearted and the well-loved famous outlaw,...
Author
Appears on list
Summary
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.
166) David Copperfield
Author
Formats
Summary
David Copperfield enjoys an idyllic life with his gentle, widowed mother and his loving nurse, Peggotty. Then tragedy strikes when Mr. Murdstone weds David's mother and drives her to an early grave. Despised by his stepfather, the boy is forced to live in misery and poverty until he runs away to throw himself upon the mercy of his eccentric aunt. Charles Dickens's classic tale of growing up.
Author
Series
Summary
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934, Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) explored such themes as the relativity of truth, the vanity and necessity of illusion, and the instability of human personality. In this famous play, an expressionistic parable set in a small Italian town in the early twentieth century, Pirandello skillfully dramatizes these issues. The observer Laudisi derides the townspeople for their insistence on...
Author
Series
Summary
Among the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought: Euthyphro, exploring the concepts and aims of piety and religion; Apology, a defense of the integrity of Socratesʹ teachings; Crito, exploring Socratesʹ refusal to flee his death sentence; and Phaedo, in which Socrates embraces death and discusses the immortality of the soul.
Author
Series
Summary
Playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) spent his early years as a merchant seaman and drifter on the waterfronts of New York, Liverpool, and Buenos Aires. From these experiences came the inspiration and subject matter for four of his finest short plays, collected in this volume. Written between 1913 and 1917 and considered to have made O'Neill's reputation, the plays comprise a tetralogy, all concerning the same ship, the S.S. Glencairn. The plays...
170) Early poems
Author
Series
Summary
American poet Ezra Pound (1885–1972) was among the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. As a poet, he founded the Imagist movement (c. 1909–17), which advocated the use of precise, concrete images in a free-verse setting. As an editor, he fostered the careers of William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost. As a force in the literary world, he championed James Joyce and Wyndham Lewis. Pound also helped to create a...
Author
Series
Summary
Written between 1845 and 1846 and first published in 1850, "Sonnets from the Portuguese" is a series of love poems written by the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her husband, the famous English poet and playwright, Robert Browning, which was critically acclaimed and instantly popular upon its publication and has remained so to this day. Referring to her olive-skinned complexion, Robert called his wife "his little Portuguese". It is from...
Author
Series
Summary
At the Tabard Inn in Southwark, in the London of the late 1300s, a band of men and women from all walks of life have gathered to begin a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. To relieve the tedium of the journey, the host of the inn proposes that each of the pilgrims tell a favorite story, promising that the best storyteller will be treated to a fi ne dinner on the group's return to Southwark.
So begins one of the earliest
Author
Series
Summary
One of the fathers of Realism was the famed 19th century French writer Honore de Balzac. His works are best known for their shrewd, yet honest, interpretation of real life problems within the social classes of French society. He believed that explaining a character would not inform the reader about the character's personality; however, describing their home, possessions, and other details would tell the reader about the character's true nature. With...