George Stade
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A plague erupted. The victim suffers a two-month latent period during which he is infectious but shows no symptoms. The virus is spread by aerosol, so that millions of people are soon infected and infectious, but without knowing it. At the climax of the disease, there is what a character calls a rite of distribution. At the climax, the victim does what he or she most wanted or feared doing, the idea being that this kind of fear is laced with fascination....
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Commonly considered to be Jack London's tour de force, The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck, a domesticated dog ripped from a comfortable life when he is stolen from his home on a California ranch. Sold to a pair of men in Canada, Buck is trained as a sled dog in cold wilderness of the Klondike region. However, Buck's ordeal has only begun, as he is forced to learn how to overcome both in the brutal conditions and as the primal social facets...
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The position of women in a success-oriented society is epitomized by the story of Caroline Meeber, who leaves her small Mid-western hometown in 1889 to start life anew in Chicago and later in New York. In her quest for riches she becomes a famous actress, only to realize that despite her material acquisitions true happiness remains illusory.
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The mysterious financier Augustus Melmotte buys a great house in London, where he succeeds in persuading many prominent Londoners to invest in his fictitious railroad, the South Central Pacific and Mexican. Melmotte also attempts to secure for himself a place in the House of Commons and to marry his daughter to a titled aristocrat. Trollope's masterpiece is a scathing indictment of the materialism and greed that permeated the Victorian Age.
5) Kim
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Kimball O?Hara grows up an orphan in the walled city of Lahore, India. Deeply devoted to an old Tibetan lama but involved in a secret mission for the British, Kim struggles to weave the strands of his life into a single pattern. Kim and the holy man roam about India. Kim?s intimate knowledge of India makes him a valuable asset to the English Secret Service, in which he wins renown while still a boy. Charged with action and suspense, yet profoundly...
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The Virginian is a ranch hand at the Shiloh Ranch, located outside of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. He is described as a tall, dark, slim young giant, with a deep personality. His real name is never given. At first, he is only a worker, but halfway through the book, he is signed on as the full-time foreman. He is the Judge's most trusted worker. Several times throughout the book, he is offered the chance to run down his enemy, Trampas, behind his back, but...
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Built around the incident of the mysterious and unfortunate prisoner in the Bastille, Dumas concludes the adventures of the three musketeers. It is the Musketeers' final adventure during which they plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with his twin brother, the true king, who has been falsely imprisoned in the Bastille for eight years.
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In "Heart of Darkness, Captain Marlowe must wend his way up the African Congo to recover the missing Colonel Kurtz in one of the greatest steamship adventures ever told. As Marlowe's ship Nellie scrapes along the Congo, the voyage into the human soul, like the morass of steaming foliage along the banks, becomes increasingly dark and perilous. In addition to the Marlowe tales "Heart of Darkness and "Youth, this new volume includes Conrad's classic...
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With her young son in her arms, Eliza flees the Kentucky farm where she's been a slave. Enslaved on a farm nearby, her husband George also flees. Hoping to be reunited, Eliza and George seek to reach the free state of Ohio and then Canada. The dangers they face are life-threatening. Another slave, Tom, is torn from his wife and children and the Kentucky farm that has been his home. He is sold to a slave trader who takes him south. Tom doesn't know...
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Everyman's library. Biography volume no. 318
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First published in 1857, The Life of Charlotte Bronte presents an intimate portrait of the celebrated author through the eyes of Elizabeth Gaskell, a personal friend of Bronte’s and fellow trailblazer of Victorian-era literature. Drawing from hundreds of Bronte’s letters, Gaskell illuminates what she described as a "wild, sad life and the beautiful character that grew out of it."
Beginning with Bronte’s lonely childhood as a student at the...
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In Thomas Hardy's first major literary success, independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening...
12) Frankenstein
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From the Publisher: Frankenstein: Using parts from corpses, Victor Frankenstein creates a large, man-like creature. Rejected and abused by humans, the creature takes revenge by committing murder. Frankenstein then pursues the creature, determined to kill him or die in the attempt. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: When Dr. Henry Jekyll begins to look ill and isolates himself from his friends, they fear for his life. A mysterious, evil...
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In seventeenth-century Boston, Hester Prynne shoulders the scorn of her fellow Puritan townsfolk for bearing a child out of wedlock. For her refusal to name the father of her daughter Pearl, Hester is made to wear a scarlet 'A' stitched conspicuously upon her dress. But though she bears the stigma of the shame her peers would confer upon her, others feel the guilt for her transgression more acutely--notably the pious Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the...
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"Assembling at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a group of pilgrims begin their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. To entertain themselves on the long road, their host suggests that they regale each other with stories, with the teller of the best tale set to earn a free supper. The pilgrims correspond to all sections of medieval society, from the crusading knight to the drunken cook, and their tales span a range of genres, including the comic ribaldry and...
15) Jane Eyre
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Orphaned Jane Eyre refuses to be cowed by the harsh treatment meted out by her austere aunt and bullying cousins. Independent of spirit and thirsting for knowledge and adventure, Jane relishes being sent away to Lowood school, where the grim conditions are mitigated by the bonds of a doomed friendship. Having rises from pupil to teacher at Lowood, she is appointed governess at Thornfield Hall, whose master is the remote, brooding Edward Rochester....
16) Persuasion
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"Jane Austen's final finished novel, Persuasion tells the story of two people--Anne Elliot and Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth--who were once betrothed and in love but parted ways under unfortunate circumstances. Eight years later, their paths cross again--but shrouded in feelings of regret and bitterness. Amidst endless distractions and hurdles, will Anne and Frederick find their way back to each other? Will they be given a second chance at love?...
17) Dracula
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As fledgling English lawyer Jonathan Harker treks into the Carpathian Mountains to complete a real estate transaction, frightened peasants warn him of horrible dangers that await him. Harker, terrified by eerie events along the way, finally meets his client, Count Dracula, a tall, gaunt old man with a surprisingly powerful handshake. Harker soon realises that he is a prisoner in Draculas sumptuously furnished castle a castle strangely devoid of mirrors....