Unabridged classics | Park County Library System

The Powell Library's last open day will be April 1. The library will be closed April 2-until the grand opening at our new location.

1) A little princess

Author

Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 1849-1924

Earliest Publication Date

1975

Summary

Seven year old Sara Crewe learns of the tragic death of her father not long after she is left in the care of Miss Michin, headmistress of a boarding school. Now an orphan and stripped of her family fortune, Sara must survive the emotional trials of loss and the mental anguish of abuse at the hands of her new caretakers.

2) Anne of Avonlea

Author

Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874-1942

Earliest Publication Date

1909

Summary

"At the age of 16, Anne Shirley may be very nearly an adult... but she is still every bit as imaginative and impulsive as she was when she first arrived on Prince Edward Island. Having found a new family and lifelong friends among the people of Avonlea, she now embarks on the challenges of becoming a school teacher and raising two younger orphans. Anne's hotheadedness continues to land her in scrapes in this timeless and heartwarming sequel to Anne...

3) Around the world in eighty days

Author

Verne, Jules, 1828-1905

Earliest Publication Date

1924

Summary

One night in the reform club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and dangerous locations, they seize whatever transportation is at hand - whether train or elephant - overcoming set-backs and always racing against the clock.

Author

Grey, Zane, 1872-1939

Earliest Publication Date

1933

Summary

After the success of Zane Grey's first novel, Betty Zane, first published in 1903, Grey gave up his dental practice in New York City to concentrate on writing the westerns that would make him as rich and famous as a movie star. But ancestral pride, not money, was the impetus for Betty Zane. It was based on family stories about his great-grandfather, Colonel Ebenezer Zane, who had defended Fort Henry during the American Revolution. West Virginians...

5) Black Beauty

Author

Sewell, Anna, 1820-1878

Earliest Publication Date

1890

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

Grey, Zane, 1872-1939

Earliest Publication Date

1941

Summary

"A border town like Casita is no place for a drifter--especially a rich man's son looking for adventure. From the moment Dick Gale steps into this stinking, sun-baked hellhole of gambling and corruption, revolution, and revenge, he gets more than a bargained for. His old friend Thorne is in love with a beautiful senorita who has been targeted by the Mexican rebel Rojas. A bold, sneering devil of a man, feared, envied, and idolized by his people, Rojas...

Author

Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912

Earliest Publication Date

1897

Summary

First published in 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker has become the standard against which all other vampire stories are compare and the inspiration for countless film and stage adaptations. Indeed, the name "Dracula" has been synonymous with the Undead for at least a century, and the original novels till has the power to chill. Come then to Castle Dracula, hidden in the forbidding peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, where an undying creature of evil casts...

8) Emma

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1948

Summary

"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...

9) Little women

Author

Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888

Earliest Publication Date

1915

Summary

For generations, children around the world have come of age with Louisa May Alcott's March girls: hardworking eldest sister Meg, headstrong, impulsive Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. With their father away at war, and their loving mother Marmee working to support the family, the four sisters have to rely on one another for support as they endure the hardships of wartime and poverty. We witness the sisters growing up and figuring out what role...

Author

Cather, Willa, 1873-1947

Earliest Publication Date

1949

Summary

Widely recognized as Willa Cather's finest book and one of the outstanding novels of American literature, My Antonia deals with the life of Bohemian immigrant and native American settlers in the vast frontier farmlands of Nebraska. It is a work which is particularly noted for its lucid and moving depiction of the prairie and the lives of those who live close beside it.

11) Northanger Abbey

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1950

Summary

"Northanger Abbey is a novel written by Jane Austen and published posthumously in 1818. The story follows the journey of Catherine Morland, a young and naive girl from a rural family, as she travels to Bath with some family friends. There, she meets Henry Tilney, a charming and witty gentleman, and his sister, Eleanor. Catherine is invited to stay at their family home, Northanger Abbey, where she imagines it to be a gothic mansion full of secrets...

Author

Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman), 1868-1920

Earliest Publication Date

1913

Summary

Unwanted and unloved, Pollyanna Whittier comes to her aunt's home without a warm welcome. Pollyanna's irrepressible spirits make punishments seem like treats and her cheerfulness brings happiness to her aunt and other members of the community.

13) Riders of the purple sage

Author

Grey, Zane, 1872-1939

Earliest Publication Date

1912

Summary

Mormon elders in the town of Cottonwoods pressure the widow Jane Withersteen to remarry so that her lands and herds will remain in their control. Gradually they frighten away most of her cowboys, and rustlers steal away her cattle, but the gunfighter Lassiter stands by her as the inevitable confrontation draws near.

14) Shakespeare for children

Author

Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834

Earliest Publication Date

2005

Summary

Prose adaptations for children of ten of William Shakespeare's plays.

15) Tales of the Fish Patrol

Author

London, Jack, 1876-1916

Earliest Publication Date

1905

Summary

"Tales of the Fish Patrol" is a collection of seven short stories written by Jack London. Based on his own experiences, London harks back at his teenager years spent aboard various fishing boats in San Francisco Bay during the early 1900s. At the time, the waters contained rich oyster beds, and people of all ages and creeds descended upon them for profit. Jack was one of these oyster pirates, but later had a change of conscience and become a member...

16) Tarzan of the apes

Author

Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950

Earliest Publication Date

1912

Summary

A baby boy, left alone in the African jungle after the deaths of his parents, Lord and Lady Greystoke, is adopted by an ape and raised to manhood without ever seeing another human being.

17) The age of innocence

Author

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937

Earliest Publication Date

1920

Summary

An elegant portrait of desire and betrayal in Old New York. In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence.

18) The border legion

Author

Grey, Zane, 1872-1939

Earliest Publication Date

1916

Summary

Only the love of the young Miss Joan Randle can melt the cold heart of Jack Kells, ruthless leader of a gang of desperados terrorizing the American borderlands. His cold eyes filled her with fear, but her goodness made something happen deep within him. Kells had a price on his head and on his heels. Now loving this woman could cost him his life...or it could make him a hero in this wild, dangerous land. There are classic Western elements: likable...

19) The call of the canyon

Author

Grey, Zane, 1872-1939

Earliest Publication Date

1924

Summary

Carley Burch leaves her high society life in New York City to reclaim her fiancé, Glen Kilbourne, who had moved to the Wild West to recover from World War I. She braves fierce ruffians, brutal elements and lack of civilization. Carley must adapt to the rigorous life of the West. But will she be able to convince Glenn to return to his "home" in New York? Will she be in time before a rival temptress steals Glenn away?

20) The jungle book

Author

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

Earliest Publication Date

1948

Summary

Mowgli, left alone in the jungle as a toddler after his parents are run off by Shere Khan, a Bengal tiger, grows to adulthood with the help of kind animals, always knowing his own showdown with the tiger is yet to come.

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