"Life on the Mississippi" is Mark Twain's depiction of his life on the Mississippi river as a steamboat pilot; beginning with a brief history of the river, continuing with a depiction of his early training as a steamboat pilot and following many years later with a description of his trip on a steamboat from St. Louis to New Orleans. Combined with many tall tales «Life on the Mississippi» is a charming depiction of a bygone era in Ameri ...
Set in the Limberlost Swamp area of Indiana, «Freckles» is American writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter's 1904 novel about a one-handed adult orphan who takes a job guarding timber in the swamp. While there, he becomes enchanted by the beauty of the wildlife in the swamp and of a nameless young woman that he meets there, whom we know only as 'The Swamp Angel'. Our main character, whom we know only as 'Freckles' is ...
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Oscar Wilde's classic tale of the moral decline of its title character, Dorian Gray. When Dorian has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward and wishes that he would stay young while his picture changes, his wish comes true. In exchange for this Dorian gives up his soul and as he ages the bad deeds that he commits are reflected in his painting and not him. «The Picture of Dorian Gray», arguably Wilde&apos ...
First published in 1899, this graphic depiction of urban American life centers around McTeague, a dentist practicing in San Francisco at the turn of the century. While at first content with his life and friendship with an ambitious man named Marcus, McTeague eventually courts and marries Trina, a parsimonious young woman who wins a large sum of money in a lottery. The greed of the majority of the characters in the novel creates a chain of events ...
The first novel of Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, this work introduces the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and many of its clerical inhabitants. Originally published in 1855, the story centers on Mr. Septimus Harding who has been granted the comfortable wardenship of Hiram's Hospital, an almshouse from a medieval charity of the diocese. Mr. Harding, a fundamentally good man and an excellent musician, conscientiousl ...
An unparalleled example of Gothic romance, Radcliffe's novel portrays the multitude of misfortunes heaped upon the admirable French heroine, Emily St. Aubert. Losing first her mother, then her beloved father, the orphaned Emily must be separated from her newfound love Valancourt to live with her aunt and new guardian, Madame Cheron. Emily then faces the evil machinations of her aunt's husband, the Italian brigand Signor Montoni, who im ...
In the classical tale «The Satyricon,» Petronius Arbiter makes a strong, yet humorous, statement about the social life of the Romans. Rather than telling the story of Encolpius and his companions heroically, which was the typical approach of other writings around 1 AD, Petronius chose to show the true life and vernacular of the Roman lower and middle class through satire and comedy. Narrator Encolpius, a former gladiator, goes on adventures with ...
"Ethan Frome" is considered by many to be one of Edith Wharton's greatest literary accomplishments. Set in rural New England, «Ethan Frome» is the story of its title character who marries Zenobia, a nagging hypochondriac of a woman, and finds himself trapped in an unfulfilling life. When Zenobia's young cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, Frome falls in love with her. Ethan Frome is the story of forbidden love and its tr ...
Considered one of the best books ever written, «War and Peace» has remained in the upper echelon of world literature because it masterfully captures an intimate view of humanity on an epic scale. Through the use of fictional narrative, Tolstoy utilizes a huge cast of characters, centering on five aristocratic Russian families in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars. These characters, particularly Pierre, Prince Andrei, and the beautiful Natasha, dem ...
