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1) Alexandra
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2022
Book
Not Owned
Summary
"Traditionally ascribed to the early third-century BCE tragedian Lykophron, the Alexandra is a powerful Greek poem by an unknown author, probably written c. 190, when Rome had defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians and was poised to humble the Seleukid king Antiochos III. The poem is an ingeniously constructed masterpiece, a generic mix with elements of tragedy, epic, and history. Priam's beautiful daughter, the prophetic Kassandra, foresees her...
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2008
Book
Not Owned
eBooks
Available Online
Summary
David Hume (1711-1776) is thought to be one of the greatest philosophers. In this text, Hume gives an accessible presentation of strikingly original and challenging views concerning human understanding.
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1919
Book
Not Owned
Summary
Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...
4) Black Beauty
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1890
Book
On Shelf
Audiobook CD
Not Owned
Playaway
Not Owned
eAudiobook
Checked Out
eBooks
Available Online
Kindle
Available Online
Summary
One of the best loved animal stories ever written, the dramatic and heartwarming Black Beauty is told by the magnificent horse himself, from his idyllic days on a country squire's estate to his harsh fate as a London cab horse. No one can ever forget the gallant Black Beauty, a horse with a white star on his forehead and a heart of unyielding courage.
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2008
Book
Not Owned
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1876
Book
Not Owned
Summary
Deronda, a high-minded young man searching for his path in life, finds himself drawn by a series of dramatic encounters into two contrasting worlds: the English country-house life of Gwendolen Harleth, a high-spirited beauty trapped in an oppressive marriage, and the very different lives of a poor Jewish girl, Mirah, and her family. As Deronda uncovers the long-hidden secret of his own parentage, Eliot's moving and suspenseful narrative opens up a...
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2011
Book
Not Owned
Summary
This book examines Chaucer's life and poetry through the lens of his cultural experience. It offers a wide-ranging account of the medieval society from which his works sprang, and examines the works in detail. It considers the intellectual and philosophical contexts, and the modern reception of Chaucer in film and television.
8) Georgics
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2009
Book
Not Owned
Summary
Virgil was born to a farming family, and his poetic work named The Georgics comes as close to his heart as it possibly can. He dedicated this work to the land, the farming communities and the issues surrounding complex relationships and political situation of the time. Virgil's love for the earth and everything that grows and lives there makes this poem one of his most expressive and passionate.
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1939
Book
On Shelf
Audiobook CD
Not Owned
CD + Book
Not Owned
Playaway
Not Owned
eAudiobook
Available Online
eBooks
Available Online
Kindle
Available Online
Summary
Great Expectations is among the most masterful of Charles Dickens's novels. Displaying extraordinary tragicomic range, Dickens blends an atmosphere of brooding violence and guilt with sharp and often disturbing humor to create a drama charged with the thrilling intensity of a detective story and the poignancy of a spiritual autobiography. Much of the novel's power comes from Dickens's unequaled skill at making even the most wildly eccentric of characters...
Earliest Publication Date
1999
Book
Not Owned
Summary
A new poetic translation of Greek lyric, elegiac, and iambic poets of the two centuries from 650 to 450 BCE. Includes a number of pieces not previously translated.
11) Greenmantle
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2006
Book
Not Owned
Summary
"November 1915. Richard Hannay is tasked to undertake a top-secret mission to investigate rumours of a plot to create a holy war throughout the Muslim world and draw troops and resources from the Western Front. Hannay must journey to Constantinople through war-torn Europe, recruiting three loyal friends--Peter Pienaar, John S Blenkiron and Sandy Arbuthnot--to help him as he unravels coded messages, escapes murderous mobs and tracks down the mysterious...
Earliest Publication Date
2008
Book
Not Owned
Summary
This anthology traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late 18th century to the early years of political independence.
13) Jane Eyre
Earliest Publication Date
1933
Book
On Shelf
Audiobook CD
Not Owned
Large Print
Not Owned
eAudiobook
Checked Out
eBooks
Available Online
Kindle
Available Online
Summary
In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself in love with her employer who has a terrible secret. Charlotte Bronte's novel about the passionate love between Jane Eyre, a young girl alone in the world, and the rich, brilliant, domineering Rochester has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic, ever since...
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2009
Book
On Shelf
15) Jude the obscure
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1923
Book
Not Owned
Audiobook CD
On Shelf
eBooks
Available Online
Kindle
Available Online
Summary
Thomas Hardy (2nd June 1840 – 11th January 1928), celebrated poet and writer, was born in a modest thatched cottage near Dorchester in the West country, to a builder father. His mother came from a line of intelligent, lively and ambitious women so ensured her son had the best formal education available for their modest means although this ended when he was 16. He became a draughtsman specialising in the building of churches was able to give
...Author
Earliest Publication Date
1902
Book
Not Owned
Summary
Twelve stories about animals, insects, and other subjects include "How the Camel Got His Hump." "The Butterfly That Stamped, " and "How the Alphabet Was Made."
17) Kidnapped
Earliest Publication Date
1932
Book
On Shelf
Audiobook CD
On Shelf
eBooks
Available Online
Kindle
Available Online
Summary
In 1751 in Scotland, cheated out of his inheritance by a greedy uncle who has him kidnapped and put on a ship to the Carolinas, seventeen-year-old David Balfour escapes to the Highlands with the help of the Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart and there encounters further danger and intrigue as he attempts to clear his name and regain his property.
18) Kim
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1901
Book
On Shelf
Audiobook CD
On Shelf
Summary
Rudyard Kipling's epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Born in India and growing into early manhood, Kim is the son of an Irish soldier born under British Imperial rule in 19th century India. Left in the care of a half-caste woman, Kim is free to explore the back allies and bazaars of Lahore. But when he meets with his father's old regiment he trades his native clothes for European suits and abandons his...
19) Leviathan
Author
Earliest Publication Date
1950
Book
Not Owned
eBooks
Available Online
Summary
""During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre." Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign -- or "Leviathan" -- to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the...
Author
Earliest Publication Date
2008
eBooks
Available Online
Summary
In this almost documentary account of his own experiences of penal servitude in Siberia, Dostoevsky describes the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, the squalor and the degradation, in relentless detail. The inticate procedure whereby the men strip for the bath without removing their ten-pound leg-fetters is an extraordinary tour de force, compared by Turgenev to passages from Dante's Inferno. Terror and resignation - the rampages of a...
