First published in 1900, “Sister Carrie” is Theodore Dreiser’s classic tale of Caroline “Sister Carrie” Meeber, a young woman living in rural Wisconsin who yearns for a more urban life. She takes the train to Chicago where she is taken in by her older sister Minnie and her husband. Caroline attempts to make her way in Chicago first by obtaining a job in a factory but is quickly confronted with the coarse reality of a working class life. When she ...
The third novel in the “Anne of Green Gables” saga, Lucy M. Montgomery’s “Anne of the Island” first debuted in 1915. The plucky young Anne Shirley is now all grown up into a smart beautiful young woman. Having left the environs of Avonlea, where she was employed as a teacher in the preceding novel, “Anne of Avonlea”, Anne is off to pursue her dream of obtaining a college degree at Redmond College in Nova Scotia. She is joined there by childhood ...
First published in 1912, “Riders of the Purple Sage” is Zane Grey’s genre defining novel which has been referred to as “the most popular western novel of all time.” Set in the canyon country of southern Utah in 1871, it is the story of Jane Withersteen, a Mormon who has refused the wishes of her father to marry Elder Tull because she does not love him. Jane, whose father has passed away and has inherited his valuable ranch, is persecuted by the ...
First published in 1807, “Tales from Shakespeare” is the classic retelling of Shakespeare’s plays by brother and sister duo Charles and Mary Lamb. All told twenty of Shakespeare’s plays are represented in this work. On what basis the two made their selection of tales is unknown, the English Histories are left unattempted, as well as the Roman Plays. Of the comedies only “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is omitted. As Alfred Ainger comments in his introduc ...
First published in 1888, “Looking Backward: 2000-1887” is the highly influential work of utopian science fiction by American journalist Edward Bellamy. In the years following the American Civil War a growth in inequality led to an increase in social and economic turmoil. The rise of ever larger and less competitive firms was causing wages to stagnate and created an appetite amongst the populace for solutions to help mitigate the negative effects ...
First published in 1907, “Lord of the World” is the dystopian work of science fiction by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson which depicts the rise of the Anti-Christ and the ensuing end of the world. The novel begins with a prologue set in early 21st century London in which the history of the last century is described. A global rise of Marxism has divided the world up into three power-blocs; a European Confederation of Marxist one-party states, an Eas ...
“The Man in the Iron Mask” represents the final portion of the third installment of the ‘D’Artagnan Romances’. Preceded by “The Three Musketeers”, the first volume; “Twenty Years After”, the second volume; “The Vicomte de Bragelonne”, part one of the third volume; “Ten Years Later” part two of the third volume; and “Louise de la Valliere”, part three of the third volume; “The Man in the Iron Mask” is a tale that brings to life the mystery of one ...
When Emily Inglethorp, the elderly matriarch of Styles Court, an Essex country manor, is found poisoned with strychnine, a guest of the manor, Arthur Hastings calls upon his friend, famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, to solve the mystery that surrounds her death. Chief amongst the suspects is Emily’s husband Alfred Inglethorp, a much younger man whom she has recently married and has the most to gain from her death. Another potential suspec ...
One of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular and influential works, “Ivanhoe” is the story of one of the last remaining Saxon noble families. At the beginning of the novel we find its titular character, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who has been disinherited by his father for his allegiance to the Norman king, Richard the Lionheart, and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, returning from the Third Crusade. Wilfred’s father, Cedric, had planned to marry ...
