Signature Editions | Park County Library System

Author

Earliest Publication Date

1859

Summary

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's great historical novel, set against the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author's novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores...

2) Death comes for the archbishop

Author

Cather, Willa, 1873-1947

Earliest Publication Date

1927

Summary

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In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows--gently, although he must contend with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events...

3) Emma

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1948

Summary

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"The culmination of Jane Austen's genius, a sparkling comedy of love and marriage--now in a stunning 200th-anniversary Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Beautiful, clever, rich--and single--Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to...

4) Frankenstein

Author

Shelley, Mary

Earliest Publication Date

1994

Summary

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Immerse yourself in the haunting world of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's legendary gothic horror novel. First published in 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's classic tale of science gone wrong that has electrified readers for over 200 years. This deluxe Frankenstein special edition brings the dark drama and imagination of this seminal work of classic science fiction and horror to vivid life. It follows the story of gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein...

5) Meditations

Author

Aurelius, Marcus

Earliest Publication Date

2010

Summary

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Discover Meditations with this striking collector's edition from Union Square & Co.'s Signature Editions series! The classic texts that shaped our culture feature exclusive cover art by distinguished artist Malika Favre. Her bold, graphic style gives each classic book a small masterpiece for a jacket. Collect the set or prize this Meditations special edition as your showpiece of Stoic philosophy. Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me-Not...

6) Mrs. Dalloway

Author

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941

Earliest Publication Date

1925

Summary

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"Mrs. Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels. The working title of Mrs. Dalloway was The Hours. The novel began with two short stories, "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". The book describes Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host...

7) My Ántonia

Author

Cather, Willa, 1873-1947

Earliest Publication Date

1918

Summary

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A successful lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with an immigrant Bohemian girl.

8) Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave

Author

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Earliest Publication Date

1845

Summary

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In the most seminal slave narrative ever written, Frederick Douglass writes, "From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom." Reading this narrative is to witness...

9) Oil!: A novel

Author

Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968

Earliest Publication Date

1927

Summary

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"This masterpiece of realist fiction portrays a gripping tale of corruption and greed. Oil! delivers a scathing, satirical critique of social injustice during the early years of the California oil boom"-- Provided by publisher.

10) The great Gatsby

Author

Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940

Earliest Publication Date

1925

Summary

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"In a single, engaging volume, The Great Gatsby presents a helpful literary guide to one of America's most prized classic novels. First published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the Jazz Age and examined the American obsession with love, wealth, material objects, and class. Considered one of the great novels of the 20th century, Fitzgerald s famous work remains relevant for its observations on the pursuit of...

11) The souls of black folk

Author

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

Earliest Publication Date

1905

Summary

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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 – 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community, and after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology...

12) To the lighthouse

Author

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941

Earliest Publication Date

1927

Summary

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A landmark novel of high modernism, the text, which centres on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920, skillfully manipulates temporal and psychological elements. To the Lighthouse follows and extends the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, where the plot is secondary to philosophical introspection, and the prose can be winding and hard to follow. The novel includes little...

13) Up from slavery: an autobiography

Author

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

Earliest Publication Date

1901

Summary

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Booker T. Washington, the most recognized national leader, orator, and educator, emerged from slavery in the deep south, to work for the betterment of African Americans in the post Reconstruction period. Up From Slavery is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans.--Cover [p.4]