"A Little Princess" is one of Frances Hodgson Burnett's most loved stories. It is the story of young Sara Crewe who while growing up in a well to do household suddenly finds herself impoverished when her father, Captain Crewe, dies penniless in India. Sara is forced to abandon her life of privilege for a life of bare existence at Miss Minchin's boarding school. To survive those hard times she imagines herself to be a little prince ...
To this day, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) is a name synonymous with science fiction. Forced to work as a child to help support his family, Wells was determined to be a learned man. Eventually, he received a degree from London University where he studied evolutionary science under Thomas Huxley. Wells was stricken with tuberculosis shortly after, and in his weakened condition took to writing. Scientific romance, later known as science fiction, is the ...
Emile Zola (1840-1902) is perhaps the most important French writer of the 19th century. Zola dramatically shaped the course of French literature through the development of naturalism, characterized by the unsentimental and realistic portrayal of middle and lower class French life. His twenty novel cycle «Les Rougon-Macquart» is epic in scope, often drawing comparisons to the prolific output of Balzac. Here, in his 1888 «Le Reve» («The Dream») we ...
"Great Expectations" is the classic novel by Charles Dickens that traces the life of an orphan named Pip, beginning at age seven, from Christmas eve 1812 to the winter of 1840. At the center of the novel is a complicated set of themes that can be simplified by the idea that the affection of love and loyalty of friendship are more important than aspirations for wealth and to a higher social class. «Great Expectations» is one of the great cla ...
Milt Dale, once a cowboy, prefers the solitary life of a hunter in the forested mountains of Arizona. One day while taking refuge from a storm in an abandoned hut he overhears the devious plot between Snake Anson and local landowner, Beasley, to kidnap a rival's young niece who is traveling to the aid of her dying uncle. Unable to warn the unsuspecting landowner, Auchincloss, of the nefarious plot, Dale is nobly drawn from the forest to res ...
"The Princess Casamassima" is a psychologically probing novel by Henry James about the politics and social inequalities of 19th century London. It is the story of Hyacinth Robinson, the intelligent and impoverished young bookbinder, who finds himself caught up in a world of radical politics and revolution, conflicted between a newfound world of beauty, wealth and refinement, and the honor of upholding his vows. Henry James (1843-1916) was a ...
Originally published in 1919 under the pseudonym of the narrator of the story, Herman Hesse's «Demian» is the coming of age story of its principal character «Emil Sinclair.» The struggle of Emil is one of self-awareness. A principal theme that courses through the novel is that of the inherent duality of existence. In the case of Emil this duality presents itself in the form of the opposing demands of the external world and his one internal ...
"Washington Square" is the story of Catherine Sloper, a young heiress who is wooed by Morris Townsend, a handsome gentleman who is more interested in Catherine's inheritance than he is in her. When the two get engaged against the wishes of her stubborn father Catherine must make a choice between the only man she will ever love and the wealth that she will inherit. Named for the upscale area of New York in which the novel is set, «Washi ...
Bertha Lay is a woman of independent means. On her 21st birthday she inherits her deceased father's money and pursues a courtship with 27 year old Edward Craddock, who despite being tall, strong, and handsome, is below her station in life. Bertha justifies her matrimonial choice believing that the dying stock of her blood line requires «the freshness and youth, the massive strength of her husband, to bring life to» it. Shortly after their h ...
