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Description National Avenue, originally titled The Midlander, is Booth Tarkington’s final entry in his Growth Trilogy. Like the previous entries in the series, National Avenue addresses the rapid industrialization of small-town America at the turn of the century, and the socioeconomic changes that such change brings with it. Dan Oliphant and his brother Harlan are the children of a wealthy small-town businessman. Harlan is a traditional upper-class man—affecting an accent, dressing for dinner,
Description The Adventures of Pinocchio is a story that has reached many people across the globe since it was first penned by Carlo Collodi in 1883. The adventures were originally published in serial format in an Italian weekly magazine for children. In 1940, Disney released an animated film adaptation of the story that has solidified the fable in popular culture. A wooden puppet is crafted out of a magical piece of wood by Geppetto, a humble woodworker. To Geppetto’s surprise, the puppet comes
Description The Wings of the Dove is perhaps the most well-received of Henry James’s novels. First published in 1902, it follows Kate Croy and Merton Densher, an engaged couple in late-Victorian London, who meet Milly Theale, a wealthy American heiress. Milly, though young and lively, is burdened with a fatal disease. She wishes to spend her last days on happy adventures through Europe, and her sparkling personality, still bright despite her looming death, quickly makes her a hit in the London
Description King Henry V has suddenly died, and the kingdom is in chaos. In England, noblemen are fighting amongst themselves. Loyalties are divided into two factions: the White Roses (York) and the Red Roses (Lancaster). The Duke of Gloucester, Henry VI’s Protector, is accused by Cardinal Beaufort of seizing the throne for himself. Meanwhile in France, the Dauphin Charles has been crowned the new king. English-held land once conquered by Henry V is quickly being recaptured by French forces. In
Description Psmith, down on his luck, takes out a newspaper advertisement to undertake a job, and the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, younger son of Lord Emsworth, enlists Psmith to steal his Aunt Constance’s diamond necklace. Psmith inveigles himself into Blandings Castle, posing as a Canadian poet. He falls in love with Eve Halliday and has to survive the suspicious and Efficient Baxter. In the meantime, others in Blandings Castle are also after the necklace. Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an
Description Harding’s Luck, published in 1909, is the sequel to The House of Arden by E. Nesbit. Rather darker and more serious in tone than the previous book, this novel is set in England’s Edwardian era, when there was no government-supported welfare and the poor still sometimes starved to death. It centers on young Dickie Harding, a poor, lame orphan boy who is enticed to run away with a disreputable tramp, Mr. Beale. Beale intends to use him to help carry out burglaries (a plot device not
Description Edith Wharton’s controversial novel Summer is the story of Charity Royall, an ambitious young woman trapped in a stifling small town by both her gender and her social class. When a visiting stranger arrives in town, Charity is awakened to a wider world of possibilities and to the realities that constrain her. Published in 1917, the novel was both attacked and ignored for openly acknowledging female sexuality and its many inequities. Later generations of critics have come to regard
Description No More Parades is the second in Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End series. The book, released just a few years after the close of the war, is based on Ford’s combat experiences as an enlisted man in World War I, and continues the story first begun in Some Do Not … . Christopher Tietjens, after recovering from the shell shock he suffered in Some Do Not …, has returned to the edge of the war as a commanding officer in charge of preparing draft troops for deployment to the front. As the
Description The Great Gatsby is a novel that needs no introduction for a certain generation of American readers. Long taught as required reading in American schools, critics have consistently held it up alongside Moby Dick , Huck Finn , and To Kill a Mockingbird as perhaps the quintessential Great American Novel. Nick Carraway is a young Midwestern man freshly arrived in New York to make his fortune. He rents a shabby apartment in Long Island next door to a sumptuous mansion: the home of the
Description In the midst of the French Revolution, Pierre, a young firebrand, convinces a group of rabble to rise up against the local duc. Coming across the carriage of the duc’s daughter on their march, Pierre assaults her, is run over by the carriage, and disappears. Looking to punish someone for the uprising, the duc has Pierre’s father hanged. Years later, Pierre has changed his name, gathered some wealth, and ingratiated himself with the duc (who does not know him). Pierre has plans to