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The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1877) is a collection of essays and letters by Michel de Montaigne. Originally published in French as Essais (1580), this edition was translated by English poet Charles Cotton in the late-17th century and republished by William Carew Hazlitt, the grandson of renowned English essayist and critic William Hazlitt. "No man living is more free from this passion [of sorrow] than I, who yet neither like it in myself nor...
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Marie L. McLaughlin delivers a memorable selection of Native American stories infused with folklore and oral traditions passed on from one generation to the next. This book features vivid stories with larger-than-life characters and unforgettable adventures.
Myths and Legends of the Sioux is a collection of vast stories rooted in indigenous culture. The tales are striking and memorable, featuring both human and animal protagonists. In one story,...
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The Montessori method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher. It stresses the importance of adapting the child's learning environment to his or her developmental level, and of the role of physical activity in absorbing abstract concepts and practical skills. The Montessori method teaches reading via phonics and whole language, the comparative benefits of...
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The Cruise of the Snark (1911) is a work of travel literature by American writer Jack London. In 1906, after achieving early success as an author of novels and short stories, London began dreaming of the adventures of his youth. Inspired, he spent a fortune to build a 45-foot yacht complete with two sails and a 70-horsepower engine, powerful enough to carry him across the Pacific. Envisioning a seven-year journey, London and his wife Charmian set...
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In 1905, after suffering a relapse and spending a few months at The Hartford Retreat, Clifford Whittingham Beers elected to write a book about his experiences living with mental illness and being subject to cruel treatment and physical abuse while being institutionalized.
Titled, A Mind That Found Itself, the 1908 autobiography told the story of a young man who had suffered a life full of personal tragedy, leading to feelings of intense anxiety, paranoia...
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The Post Office (1914) is a play by Rabindranath Tagore. Published following his ascension to international fame with the 1912 Nobel Prize in Literature, the play was introduced to an international audience by W. B. Yeats. When the Irish poet discovered Tagore's work in translation, he felt an intense kinship with a man whose work was similarly grounded in spirituality and opposition to the British Empire. Brought to Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1913,...
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Wrestling with the disease of alcoholism for most of his life, Jack London tells all in his autobiography John Barleycorn. Beginning with a discussion of the prohibition movement and its effects, London explores the ways that alcohol affects daily life in the Victorian era. Because there were not many forms of affordable entertainment or reliable communication, bars were the perfect spot for social activity. People were able to sit and drink, enjoying...
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The Aeneid of Virgil (19 BC) is an epic poem by Roman poet Virgil. Virgil's legendary epic is the story of the hero Aeneas, a castaway from Troy whose adventures across the Mediterranean led him to Italy, where he discovered what would later become the city of Rome. Presented here in an accessible prose translation, The Aeneid of Virgil is a treasure of classical literature and a story of romance, war, and adventure to rival the best of Homer. Fleeing...
9) Show boat
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The story of the lives of performers associated with the Cotton Blossom, a steamboat plying the Mississippi River in the latter half of the 19th century.
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The Metamorphoses of Ovid (8 AD) is an epic poem by Ovid. Published the same year, the poet was, sent into exile for the rest of his life, the Metamorphoses are the crowning achievement of the first major poet of the Roman empire. Written in dactylic hexameter, the meter of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and of Virgil's Aeneid, Ovid's work is an epic poem of transformations, of shape-shifting matter and beings bound to the power of love. Taking as its...
11) Queen Victoria
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Known for its advances in literature, industrialization, politics, and science, the Victorian era was a prominent time in British history. However, author Lytton Strachey remembers Queen Victoria as a person instead of just focusing on her accomplishments. First starting with a brief history of her predecessors and origins, Victoria was crowned just as she came of age. Having only been eighteen, Queen Victoria was widely unfamiliar to her subjects...
12) Passing
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Clare Kendry, a beautiful light-skinned African American woman married to a white man who is unaware of her heritage, long ago cut all ties to her past, but a reunion with a childhood friend forces her to confront her lies.
13) The waste land
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The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot. It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central text in Modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruelest month", "I will...
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The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) is a work of art history by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt. Recognized today as the founder of modern art history and as one of the key thinkers of the nineteenth century, Burckhardt changed not only the way we think about the Renaissance in relation to European and world history, but the value placed on art as a tool for understanding historical developments.
The Civilization of the Renaissance...
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In 1872, Isabella Bird, daughter of a clergyman, set off alone to the Antipodes and found she had embarked on a life of adventurous travel. In 1873, wearing Hawaiian riding dress, she rode her horse through the American Wild West, a terrain only newly opened to pioneer settlement. The letters that make up this volume were first published in 1879. They tell of magnificent, unspoiled landscapes and abundant wildlife, of encounters with rattlesnakes,...
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An Enemy of the People addresses the irrational tendencies of the masses, and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system that they support. It is the story of one brave man's struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social inttolerance.
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"The Incredulity of Father Brown" is a 1926 collection of mystery short stories by English writer G. K. Chesterton. Set in the early twentieth century, each of the stories centres around the cunning investigations of Father Brown, an amateur detective who uses his incredible intuition to solve a variety of perplexing mysteries. The stories include: "The Resurrection of Father Brown", "The Arrow of Heaven", "The Oracle of the Dog", "The Miracle of...
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The lives and changing fortunes of three generations of a once-powerful and socially prominent family are chronicled in this vivid tale of the corrupting influence of greed and materialism. As the rapidly turning wheels of industry and commerce overtake old ways in th eearly twentieth century and change the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty, the prominence and prestige of the Amberson family irreversibly changes as well.
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Troilus and Criseyde (c.1385) is an epic poem written by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Composed in Middle English, Troilus and Criseyde is the story of two lovers forced apart by the Greek siege of Troy. Often considered Chaucer's finest work for its structural consistency and completeness, the poem adapts Homer's Iliad and other ancient sources which expand on its tradition to tell a Christian moral tale about the importance of faith and the sacred...