Modern Fiction

All Books

The Metal Monster
By: A. Merritt
When Dr. Walter T. Godwin sets out to study a rare flower in Tibet, he has no idea of what adventures await him. Meeting old friends in the secluded Himalayas, he quickly finds himself fleeing from the descendents of a lost Persian Empire city right into the domain of a seemingly omnipotent metal intelligence. This extraterrestrial metal intelligence is made up of a collective composed of living cubes, pyramids and spheres. Even stranger, the intelligence seems to work through a human woman of great beauty, Norhala. This metal intelligence is beyond anything that Godwin and his compatriots can even understand--is humanity about the be replaced as the ruler of the Earth?
Courtesy of Kurt A. Johnson


The Pursuit of God
By: A.W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God was the fruit of A.W. Tozer's spiritual exploration into the essence of God's nature. What resulted from the efforts of this obscure pastor from the south side of Chicago has left a profound mark on the evangelical church.
The 1949 publication of this book thrust Tozer into a respected position of spiritual leadership that he maintained the rest of his life. Tozer's ministry became a spiritual oasis for those of the 'fellowship of the burning heart,' to use a phrase he delighted in.
The desire to worship God and to inspire others to a deeper awareness of God are clearly evident in The Pursuit of God. For the person thirsting for the things of God without distracting embellishments, this book will become a faithful companion. There are some books that can be enjoyed with one reading, others are enhanced by many readings. The Pursuit of God is one of the later.
Rev. James L. Snyder March 1993

This book was created and contriubted by Overcomer.


The Moon Pool
By: Abraham Merritt
Dubbed 'The Shining One' by terrified Pacific natives, an evil mass of energy, powered by the full moon, roams the night seeking victims to kidnap. When an anthropologist falls into the clutches of the Shining One, he is whisked into the bowels of titanic caverns, where others are imprisoned, and finds himself engaged in a desperate attempt to save the sunlit world above.
Ponape and Nan-Matol are still mysterious islands in the South Pacific - despite much archaeological speculation, Easter Island is too! This wild tale combines the mystery of these islands with hollow-earth theory and techno-occultism to produce a fantasy epic only Abraham Merritt could conceive.


The Mysterious Affair at Styles
By: Agatha christie
In this story the fastidious Hercule Poirot and his companion Captain Arthur Hastings meet up with Inspector Japp to undertake the first of their many investigations. It is a case of a country house matron who is found to be dying of poison in her locked bedroom. Clues and red herrings are in abundance as everyone in the house seems to be in want of her money or suspect others of craving it. Following are four audio book readings of this novel.


The Secret Adversary
By: Agatha Christie
Murder, mayhem and adventure as this mystery opens with the sinking of the Lusitania and ends... Tommy and Tuppence's first adventure and Agatha Christie's second book. An exciting and old-fashioned adventure.


Crome Yellow
By: Aldous Huxley
An interesting first book for a renowned author. Crome Yellow is a wonderful introduction to Huxley's story-telling talents. The scenes were so meticulously laid out I felt I was watching a movie in my head. Crome was also a wonderful introduction to Huxley's knack for detailed characters. His writing style pulls you into the characters and the world of the book.
Crome was a fabulous exploration of human sexual desire. The yearning, the attempts, the exploits, even the destruction of a man. All who have ever desired another can certainly relate to this one.


The Borgias
By: Alexander Dumas, Pere
Dumas's 'Celebrated Crimes' was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language--has minced no words--to describe the violent scenes of a violent time.
In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true perspective, and in others the author makes unwarranted charges. It is not within our province to edit the historical side of Dumas, any more than it would be to correct the obvious errors in Dickens's Child's History of England. The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact.


The Black Tulip
By: Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas proves again his ability to mix adventure and romance to create an exciting and romantic tale. Although Dumas may have distorted history significantly in this story, the image of late 17th century Holland which he presents is accurate and vivid enough to give the reader a lasting impression of society and culture in this period.
The execution of Jann and Cornelius De Witte and the romance between Van Baerle and Rosa are portrayed with such detail that readers are not likely to forget this book.


The Count of Monte Cristo
By: Alexandre Dumas
The hero of the novel, Edmond Dantes, is a young sailor who is unjustly accused of aiding the exiled Napoleon. As punishment he is sentenced to life imprisonment in a French island fortress. After 14 years, Dantes makes a daring escape by taking the place of a dead companion; he is sewn into a burial shroud and thrown into the sea. Having learned from his dead prison mate of a vast treasure on the island of Monte-Cristo, Dantes eventually makes his way there to uncover and claim it. Adopting the persona of the Count of Monte Cristo, Dantes becomes a powerful, shadowy figure who eventually avenges himself on those who wronged him.


The Three Musketeers
By: Alexandre Dumas
A young man named D'Artagnan, travels to Paris from Gascony. He arrives with no horse and few worldly goods. Despite that he still wants very badly to join the King's Guards, an elite group of warriors. It's not long before he meets three musketeers whose names are, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. They are known as the most famous fighters of the day. D'Artagnan joins them and in the process enters into many adventures as they fight for the honor of their queen against the infamous Cardinal Richelieu. Drama, intrigue and romance follow in this wonderful swash buckler.
Kate Halleron contributed this book.


Twenty Years After
By: Alexandre Dumas
Two decades have passed since the famous swordsmen triumphed over Cardinal Richelieu and Milady in The Three Musketeers. Time has weakened their resolve, and dispersed their loyalties. But treasons and strategems still cry out for justice: civil war endangers the throne of France, while in England, Cromwell threatens to send Charles I to the scaffold. Dumas brings his immortal quartet out of retirement to cross swords with time, the malevolence of men, and the forces of history. But their greatest test is the titanic struggle with the son of Milady who wears the face of evil.


The Barrel Organ
By: Alfred Noyes
     Go down to Kew in lilac time; in lilac time; in lilac time;
     Go down to Kew in lilac time; (it isn't far from London!)
     And you shall wander hand in hand with love in summer's wonderland;
     Go down to Kew in lilac time; (it isn't far from London!)

This haunting and lilting refrain sets the scene and pace for Alfred Noyes lovely poem The Barrel Organ. As you read it you will feel as though you are floating over the place and can actually smell the lilacs.


Songs Before Sunrise
By: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Swinburne is now recognized as one of England's greatest poets and critics, and as one of the greatest parodists of all time. His intoxicating poetry, whether in English, French, Latin or Greek, is characterized by aggressive alliteration, driving anapaestic rhythms, and a defiance of restraint and convention. His main themes are liberty, the relationship between pleasure and pain, and the psychology of sexual passion. He was pagan in his sympathies and fervently anti-theistic: 'Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean, the world has grown grey from thy breath' (from 'Hymn to Proserpine'). Songs Before Sunrise is a book of poetry dealing with political and religious liberty.
Try as I might, I can not find where the author's name is misspelled in the document files. As a result the current version of this eBook has the author's name spelled incorrectly on the title page. My apologies.


Jefferson and His Colleagues
By: Allen Johnson
Here is the story of Thomas Jefferson and the men with whom he worked and lived. The history of America rests partially on the sholders of Thomas Jefferson. Here is that rich history, of President Thomas Jefferson.


History Of The Warfare Of Science With Theology In Christendom
By: Andrew Dickson White
It seems that from time immemorial there has always been a difference between the scientific thinker and the theology of the Bible. Even in this day and time the arguement over evolution is still as heated as ever. This book, History Of The Warfare Of Science With Theology In Christendom cuts right to the chase. It is not a light read but is extremely well constructed with cogent arguments on all points. This book deserves to be read if for no other reason than the clarity of its writing.


Helen Of Troy
By: Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang wrote the narrative poem Helen of Troy in 1882. Known more for his children's 'Fairy' books lang also was a writer of two novels and wrote versions of Odyssey and the Iliad. He is a well-respected alumnus of St Andrews University where one of his early pieces imagined Dr Johnson on the links. He spent much of his active professional life in London, but he had a considerable knowledge of much of Scotland, and an appreciation of the Scottish character which illuminated his work, and, at the end of his life, led him to begin the influential Highways and byways of the Border, completed by his wife and son. What Lang singularly failed to do was to write either a lasting novel or a really striking poem, but he was a very significant literary figure.


The Arabian Nights Entertainments
By: Andrew Lang
Shahrazad tells stories for one-thousand one nights, in order to save her life. This collection is a real treasure and not necessarily a children's book.


The Blue Fairy Book
By: Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang wrote - or should we say compiled - eight 'Fairy Books'. Each is known by a different color. This is the Blue Fairy Book. In this volume you will find stories ranging from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, to Why the Sea is Salt. It also includes the story of Goldilocks, Red Ridinghood, Beauty and The Beast as well as many more children's classics. Read this book for yourself, but read it to your kids as well.


The Crimson Fairy Book
By: Andrew Lang
In continuing with Andrew Lang's series of fairy books we pick up with the Crimson Fairy Book. Here you will meet the Lovely Ilonka, who was intended to be the bride of a prince until evil intervened. Or you can read the story of Peter, who received as his wages only a nut. But what was he to do with it? Read this story and you will see. All in all this is a book that you will enjoy, but please don't forget the children, for that's why it was written.


The Lilac Fairy Book
By: Andrew Lang
In continuing with Andrew Lang's series of fairy books we continue with the Liliac Fairy Book. Here you will meet Lars, but because he was so little he was called Little Lasse. He builds a fleet of boats - er ships - from pea pods. You will also meet the girl with one hand. It is a sad and tragic tale with a happy ending. Children will love it. And in between you will find more wonderful stories that Lang has collected. All in all this is a book that you will enjoy, but please don't forget the children, for that's why it was written.


The Orange Fairy Book
By: Andrew Lang
In continuing with Andrew Lang's series of fairy books we continue with the Orange Fairy Book. In this book you will find The Ugly Duckling, a story we all know so well. Here, as well, are found stories such as The Owl and the Eagle - an unlikely pair who set out to find brides. Or the tale of the Stalos and how they were tricked. Thre are many wonderful stories in this volume and you will enjoy them all, but please don't forget the children, for that's why it was written.


The Red Fairy Book
By: Andrew Lang
Here in the Red Fairy Book you will find some familiar characters and stories - and some that are not at all familiar. Stories that you think you know may surprise you, such as the story we all know and love as 'Snow White'. Another is the Ratcatcher. But you will find familiar titles such as Jack and the Beanstalk or Rapunzel. But again, just because the titles are familiar don't assume that you know the stories. You will be surprised. And remember, it is worth reading many of these to your children.


The Valets Tragedy
By: Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang, well known for his fairy stories and fantasy moves here into history. In this book you will find the true stories of the Man In The Iron Mask, the Mystery of Edmund Berry Godfrey and the story of the False Jeanne D'Arc, but you will also find the story of the continuing saga of whether Shakespeare was really Roiger Bacon. Read it and make up your own mind.


Black Beauty
By: Anna Sewell
In a story that takes place in 19th century England, a gorgeous glossy black colt, who comes to be known as Black Beauty, is born into a life of comfort and kindness. His life is a kind of horsey paradise, until the fortunes of his owners turn...and Black Beauty is sold.
Sold to a cruel owner as a cab horse, Beauty is now treated as so many hapless animals were in his day...he is virtually tortured. He is in constant pain. His knees are sore. He is made to wear a 'check rein,' a device that no longer exists It was a type of rein that forced the horse to keep his head up extremely high at an unnatural angle, the more to look 'elegant.' The pain that this rein inflicts upon Beauty is heartbreaking.
Along the way, Beauty meets other horses, and keeps a lifelong friend, Ginger, who also suffers. Everything comes out alright in the end, in a story that is so tender and yet meaningful at the same time, that it is a shame it is relegated by reputation to the backwaters of so-called 'children's literature.' It was pure muckracking, in the style of the great American muckrakers who came shortly thereafter.
If you have a particularly sensitive or thoughtful child, please warn him or her that Black Beauty is mistreated in the story, but that because of the book, and others like it, such mistreatment of animals no longer exists. And then let your child enjoy the sheer wealth of detail in what really is, in the end, a beautiful story.
Courtesy: Calyndula


A Day At The Beach and Other Stories For Adults
By: Anonomous Authors
Someone once said to me, 'If you can publish Fanny Hill then you can certainly publish some modern erotic stories.' After a long struggle I decided to publish this set of stories. As the title says these are for adults. If you are not interested in this type of content, please do not download the book. My logs will tell me how many do download this book. I'm interested in seeing the results.


The Prisoner of Zenda
By: Anthony Hope
'The Prisoner of Zenda' is something of a rarity: a Victorian adventure novel that is as fresh and entertaining to read in this modern jaded age as it was in 1894. If you've ever seen one of the many movie adaptations you already know the story: Rudolf Rassendyll, an Englishman vacationing in the tiny European country of Ruritania, meets and befriends the soon-to-be-crowned King Rudolf--his exact and identical double. When the King is kidnapped by the dastardly Black Michael, Rassendyll must impersonate the King in the coronation ceremony...and in the heart of the Queen. Hope's handling of the romance between Rassendyll and Queen Flavia is both a daring and romantic love story and a subtle examination of the meaning of honor and duty to a gentleman. Of course there's plenty of swordplay and derring-do along the way . If Tom Clancy was writing this one, there'd be nuclear weapons instead of swords and email instead of telegrams, but even he couldn't pull off the simple but subtle romantic story and the triumphant but poignant ending.
Courtesy: John DiBello


The Schoolmistress and Other Stories
By: Anton Chekhov
This collection will expose you to not only some of the best short stories by Anton Chekhov, but some of the best stories ever written in any language. Chekhov's sense of mood and characters overrides his need to provide a predictable plot. He is the forerunner for America's beloved Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and may others in between. People may criticize some of Chekhov's romantic devices and tendencies, but no one can deny the exactitude of his writing. His work is simple and does not rely heavily on existential characters and events, creating a timeless air.


The Conquest of the Old Southwest
By: Archibald Henderson
The Old Southwest referred to in this title, and covered in this book is not Arizona, or New Mexico. Indeed the Southwest Henderson discusses is Virginia, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky! We tend to forget that there were the days when Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the western frontier. Read here the stories of Daniel Boone and all the rest in what was once the Old Southwest.


Beyond the City
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Two sisters, new neighbors (young men all) and a curiosity that can't be beat. Doyle tells this great story and throws in a mystery to boot. Of course!


Tales of Terror and Mystery
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Here are eleven stories of terror and of mystery. If you read them on a dark night you may just find yourself looking back over your shoulder, or starting at that sound. It's only the wind... Isn't it?


The Adventures of Gerard
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Brigadier Gerard is an officer in Napoleon?s army ? recklessly brave, engagingly openhearted, and unshakable, if not a little absurd, in his devotion to the enigmatic Emperor. The Brigadier?s wonderful comic adventures, long established in the affections of Conan Doyle?s admirers is second only to those of the incomparable Holmes.


The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Vol 1
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume I. Here are the stories that we all remember reading collected now into one volume. The Red-headed League, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb and nine other stories of the famed detective. So come on down to Baker St. and spend some time with Holmes.


The Captain of the Polestar
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
The Captain of the Pole Star and other stories is an excellent collection of short stories by Conan Doyle. Not the typical Sherlock Holmes mystery, but, instead, stories that excite the mind and the soul. You will freeze in the pack ice as you read the first story in this collection.


The Hound of the Baskervilles
By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle's told a friend marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?


Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry
By: Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon
The life of Jeanne, Comtesse du Barry (1743-1793), incomparably beautiful grisette and courtesan, official mistress of an elderly and besotted king of France, can be regarded as a story of glamour, luxury, ardor, and loyalty, culminating in high tragedy, or as a cautionary tale of greed, arrogance, and endless pursuit of exquisite pleasures, inevitably ending in blood-drenched dust--depending on the eye of the beholder. Born in a small town on the borders of Lorraine, the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress and a monk, Jeanne Becu rose from the demimonde to become for four years the uncrowned queen of France. The last of the French royal favorites, she was loved by Louis XV until his death in 1774. Although most courtiers and members of the royal family repudiated her, on certain occasions she was capable of great heroism and of intense loyalty to the same aristocracy who initially spurned her. Her charity to women in need was widely known. For all her humble origins she was a woman of refined taste--patroness of Greuze and Fragonard, Vernet and Vigee-Lebrun. Her jewels were among the most famous in Europe and ultimately became a cause of her tragic downfall.


The Scarlet Pimpernel
By: Baroness Orczy
First published in 1905, this magnificent historical adventure is filled with colorful characters, hairbreadth escapes, and heart-stopping intrigue. In 1792, the French Revolution gives way to a Reign of Terror, and the condemned nobility has only one vestige of hope--rescue by the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel.
The Scarlet Pimpernel brings adventure and romance to the French Revolution. It is the story about how the Scarlet Pimpernel was the only hope for people being sent to the guillotine. The Scarlet Pimpernel's identity, however, is only known to his loyal followers. There are many twists in the story that kept the reader interested and wanting to read more. The characters had many different characteristics, which added to the book's suspense. The book is well written, it thoroughly describes what it was like to live during the French Revolution.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Original Peter Rabbit Books
By: Beatrix Potter
These are the stories that we all thought we knew. But in re-reading them we find that our selective memory has dimmed and things are not as we remember. Whether they are printed on paper, or are stored on our Pocket PC, sometimes it is good to return the stories of our childhood. But as I say with all children's books, don't give the book to your child to read, but read this book to your child. And discuss what you have read. Look at the dedication on the esspc home page and then read these stories to your child. You'll be glad you did.


The Alchemist
By: Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson, although modern audiences find him difficult to read, played an important role in the development of the English comedic play. The Alchemist, although the most difficult of Jonson's plays to read, is worth the effort, as it explores the questions of knowledge, ownership of knowledge, and abuse common in today's world.


The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin
By: Benjamin Franklin
Ben Franklin begins this book with a letter to his son, and in it he says: 'I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases.' And, indeed, it is not tiresome.


Heartbreak House
By: Bernard Shaw
Set during a house party at the eccentric household of Captain Shotover and his daughter Hesione, this comedy of manners takes a probing look at the conflict between old-fashioned idealism and the realities of the modern age. Written at the height of the first World War in Europe, an impassioned satire of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century bourgeoisie offers a scathing portrait of a household of independent eccentrics.


The Analysis Of Mind
By: Bertrand Russell
One of Russell's most important and interesting books which reconciles the materialistic tendency of psychology with the anti-materialistic tendency of physics.
You may be conscious of a friend either by seeing him or by 'thinking' of him; and by 'thought' you can be conscious of objects which cannot be seen, such as the human race, or physiology. 'Thought' in the narrower sense is that form of consciousness which consists in 'ideas' as opposed to impressions or mere memories. Lecture I
Russell tries to give a first rough definition of what he considers thinking essentially is. In the first sentence he only enumerates instances of thinking, especially the two primary functions of perception and imagination. Then, in the second sentence, he boils thinking down to ideas as opposed to impressions or memories. This is the Humean or empiricistic view. It is also the common-sense view or what I call the primitive view of mind.
Russell starts from the common experience we have of thinking. As science and philosophy have proven many times, the common view is more often than not mistaken. The common empirical view of thinking does not imply by necessity that the true essence and nature of thinking is just the way it appears to us in our daily use of thought. To gain more insight into the nature of thinking, a deeper contemplation is necessary. 'Ideas' are the copies of impressions, as Russell states several lines further above, and not ideas in the Platonic sense. Russell determines the structure of thought completely on empirical grounds, disposing of the a priori transcendental structure postulated by Kant.
Over the course of his long career, Russell made significant contributions, not just to philosophy, but to a range of other subjects as well. Many of Russell's writings on a wide variety of topics (including education, ethics, politics, history, religion and popular science) have influenced generations of general readers. After a life marked by controversy (including dismissals from both Trinity College, Cambridge, and City College, New York), Russell was awarded the Order of Merit in 1949 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Also noted for his many spirited anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, Russell remained a prominent public figure until his death at the age of 97.
Courtesy: Arnold, et. al.


Dracula
By: Bram Stoker
The story is timeless. though over one hundred years old it is still frightening and thrilling. Here is the chilling, gruesome tale of the un-dead. Told from the perspective of a number of people through journals and letters it brings the story of Dracula alive. Bram Stoker's classic vampire story has haunted and disturbed the modern imagination for a hundred years. Blood, information, and hypnotic energy circulate furiously among the characters until the tale reaches its violent climax.


Zen and the Art of the Internet
By: Brendan P. Kehoe
This copyright book is a classic. Written in 1992 it still is the definitive volume on the Internet and what makes it tick. Of course there isn't a lot about browsers, web sites and the rest, but it does lay a strong foundation for anyone who wants to know how the Internet works and how to use it more effectively. Even the jaded pro may find a few gems in this work.


The Practice of the Presence of God
By: Brother Lawrence
The title of the book speaks volumes as to what the book is about. Brother Lawrence was a very practical man whose struggles were common ones that we can all relate to. His sincere honesty (and that of the Abbe) is apparent throughout and his spirituality is simple to understand. Application, however, may not be so simple at first, but with disciplined PRACTICE one can turn one's life into a perpetual prayer to God. Remember, prayer is more than just words on the lips (although that is important too!); it is a humble attitude of a heart that has abandoned itself to the God of grace! Whatever the task is at hand (including such a mundane task as washing dishes like Brother Lawrence), one can offer it up to God in an act of love and worship. Everything one does becomes sanctified as one lives unto God and follows the Holy Spirit's leading. Two wonderful companion volumes to this book are 'Abandonment to Divine Providence' by Jean-Pierre de Caussade (one of my favorites!) and the Eastern Orthodox classic 'The Way of a Pilgrim' by an anonymous Russian pilgrim. The former beautifully expounds on the same principles of Brother Lawrence's book and the latter reflects that same concern to 'pray without ceasing' which is what practicing the presence of God is all about.


The Hacker Crackdown
By: Bruce Sterling
Yes, this is legit! This is a copyright work by Bruce Sterling with permission to distribute in electronic format. Read his preface and read this book.


The Age of Big Business
By: Burton J. Hendrick
'A comprehensive survey of the United States, at the end of the Civil War, would reveal a state of society which bears little resemblance to that of today. Almost all those commonplace fundamentals of existence, the things that contribute to our bodily comfort while they vex us with economic and political problems, had not yet made their appearance.'
So begins the 'Age of Big Business'. The really interesting thing is the fact that this book was written long before the computer, television or most modern conveniences were even dreamt of. Yet much of what the author writes is as true today in the tweny-first century as it was in 1919 when it was written. This goes to prove that the more that things change, the more they remain the same.


Helen Keller: The Story Of My Life
By: By John Albert Macy and Helen Keller
Helen Keller, blind and deaf since the age of 1 1/2 has offered, in her own words an accounting of her life experience. It is incredible to imagine how this woman, unable to see or hear can give such a strong voice to descriptions of nature. The book is replete with beautiful, articulate metaphors that draw the reader into the world as Helen knew it. One wonders how a person with no language can 'think,' and Helen provides some clues. During these 'dark days,' prior to the arrival of her 'Teacher,' Annie Sullivan, Helen's life was a series of desires and impressions. She could commnicate by a series of crude signs she and her parents had created. She demonstrated early on that she could learn.
Helen herself takes her readers past that water pump when she learned that 'all things have a name.' Instead of getting stuck there, Helen takes her readers on the journey of her life to that point.
In addition to having a good linguistic base, Helen also demonstrates having a phenomenal memory. When she was twelve, she wrote a story she believed to be her own. Entitled 'The Frost King,' it bore a strong resemblance to one written by a Ms. Canby called 'The Frost Fairies.' Many of the sentences are identical and a good number of the descriptions are paraphrased. In relating this devasting incident, Helen and Annie recall that Annie had exposed Helen to the story some three years earlier and Helen had somehow retained that information. This plainly shows intelligence.
Both the 'Frost' stories are reprinted in full, thus giving the reader a chance to see just how amazing being able to remember such a work really was.
Helen describes her work raising money for other deaf-blind children to attend the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston and in so doing, embarks upon her lifelong mission as a crusader for multiply challenged individuals.

Cover Photo: circa 1888, Ira F. Collins, Huntsville Alabama, Courtesy: American Foundation for the Blind

This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Shot In The Dark
By: Cara Swann
A poor young mother struggles to survive as a conartist, but wants to get out of the life for the sakeof her daughter. She plans one last big heist of anarmored car with a recently paroled ex-con, buttheir scheme goes awry when her former drugaddict boyfriend escapes prison and abducts thechild.
Copyright ? 2000
Cara Swan


Project Trinity
By: Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer
The race was on as World War II was drawing to a close. The United States and the Germans were competing... competing to produce the first atomic bomb. In the end we came to understand that the race was not as close as we suspected, but never the less the United States did produce the first atomic weapons - and used them.
The world has not been the same since.
And now in the early days of the twenty-first century the dragon of terror raises it's ugly head. The most prosaic and common of objects were turned into lethal ballistic missiles; airliners. And the targets were buildings packed with people. Following that episode the terrorists turned to biological attacks as they attempted to instill fear into the civilized world. What weapon will be next? We know that there are those who are trying to create their own nuclear weapons. Let us pray that they never succeed.
Here in this slim volume are the unclassified documents surrounding the creation of the first atomic weapons of mass destruction. Though the reading is dry at times, it is well worth our while to read - and to understand. Because if we could do this nearly sixty years ago, it is even more possible that renegade forces can do it today.
We are the targets and this is the weapon.


Indian Heroes And Great Chieftains
By: Charles A. Eastman
Here are the stories of a number of Native American chieftains and heroes. Among them you will find the likes of Sitting bull and Chief Joseph.
Sitting Bull, whose Indian name was Tatanka Iyotake, was born in the Grand River region of present-day South Dakota in approximately 1831. His nickname was Hunkesi, meaning 'Slow' because he never hurried and did everything with care. Sitting Bull was a member of the Sioux tribe, and he joined his first war party against the Crow at age 14. The Sioux fought against hostile tribes and white intruders. Soon, Sitting Bull became known for his fearlessness in battle. He was also generous and wise, virtues admired by his tribe.
He led his people in an attempt to resist the takeover of their lands in the Oregon Territory by white settlers. In 1877, the Nez Perce were ordered to move to a reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph agreed at first. But after members of his tribe killed a group of settlers, he tried to flee to Canada with his followers, traveling over 1500 miles through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Along the way they fought several battles with the pursuing U.S. Army.
His most remembered words are 'From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. '


Reflections On The Decline Of Science In England
By: Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage is considered to be the father of modern computing, even though when he was working the concept of the modern computer would have been identical to magic to him. Never the less it was Babbage who defined the major parts of a computer and build his analytical engine, the first step in computing design. His differential engine, the real computing machine, was never built, though he did assemble a few portions of it. The sheer immensity of the task, not to mention the cost, was enough to discourage anyone.
His inventions, however, have proved a boon to humanity, among others he is credited with the invention of the cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, heliograph opthalmoscope.
In this book Babbage takes on the scientific societies, the government, universities and more as he argues why science had so declined in England. He called on government and society to support the sciences with money and prestige to scientific endeavor.


The Origin of Species
By: Charles Darwin
Believe it or not, this book was intended to be merely an introductory statement to a massive 20-volume treasise on evolution that Darwin had intended to write. However, he died before his Magnum Opus was completed. Although Darwin was not the first man to champion evolution, he was the first to create a convincing argument for it. This classic book thus records the beginning of a huge paradigm shift in biology. However, don't expect a flawless, up-to-date discussion - much has changed about evolutionary theory since Darwin's time. To fill in the holes, you might also want to read something more modern as a supplement. Richard Dawkin's 'The Selfish Gene' would be an excellent choice. Outdated concepts aside, 'On the Origin of Species' puts forward an ingeniously simple argument and backs it up with an enormous and varied set of examples. It is easy to see how this book was destined to shake the foundations of science.


The Voyage of the Beagle
By: Charles Darwin
From 1831 to 1836 Charles Darwin, then a young man in his twenties, was the official naturalist on the Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle. The Beagle spent five years completing a survey of the coasts of South America and making a series of longitude measurements around the world. This proved to be one of the most important scientific voyages of the 19th century, for it was on this voyage that Darwin made the observations that lead, twenty years later, to his formulating the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. This book is Darwin's account of his observations on this voyage. Darwin was a master of detailed observation, and he describes the things he observed -- the plants, animals, geology, and people -- in loving detail. His accounts are always lively and full of interest. Darwin was also a master of inductive reasoning, and there are several superb examples of this in this book. Perhaps the finest is Darwin's induction of the cause of the formation of the coral atolls that dot the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean (his theory was proved correct in the 20th century). Indeed, much of the value of this book for the modern reader lies in the many examples it contains of scientific, inductive thought; a powerful method of reasoning that is as neglected today as it was in Darwin's time.


The Descent of Man
By: Charles Darwin, F.R.S.
A beautiful, historical account of a great naturalist's work. It is important to keep in mind that the book was written 129 years ago, though, since the use of the language would not be considered 'politically correct' nowadays.
Darwin was someone 'who viewed life on earth in terms of an evolutionary framework grounded in science and reason' (taken from the Introduction by H. James Birx). It is difficult to believe that an educated person would misinterpret his ideas as being sexist or racist. Only the ignorant (or a creationist in disguise) would attempt to discredit the work of one of the greatest minds of all times by giving it the wrong label.


A Christmas Carol
By: Charles Dickens
That miserly man, Ebenezer Scrooge, so cheap he won't even paint out the name of his dead partner, Marley, from the company sign, though he has been dead these many years. The old penny-pincher is about to come face to face with the reality of the world.
Or as Charles Dickens himself wrote, 'I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.'


A Tale of Two Cities
By: Charles Dickens
Dr. Alexander Manette is freed from his unjust imprisonment in the Bastille and is reunited with his long lost daughter, Lucie, in England. They are called as witnesses at the treason trial of Charles Darnay, a dashing young Frenchman. Darnay too is falsely accused, but he is saved, in part by his resemblance to a law clerk named Sydney Carton. Darnay and Lucie eventually marry, though not before the wastrel Carton declares his love for her and his unworthiness of her. He pledges that one day he will prove himself worthy by doing her a service. That opportunity comes when Darnay is condemned to death by a French tribunal and sentenced to the guillotine.


David Copperfield
By: Charles Dickens
Narrated in the first person, it tells the story of a fatherless boy whose happy life with his mother and their doting servant Clara Peggoty is cruelly ended when his mother remarries. His stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, first sends him away to school (Salem House), where he is abused, then, after David's mother dies, puts him to work gluing labels on bottles. Eventually he runs away and is adopted by his stern but loving aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood. She sends him to a better school (Dr. Strong's) and he is launched on a career that will see him become a law clerk, a reporter and ultimately a successful novelist. He marries Dora, the pretty but insipid daughter of Mr. Spenlow, for whom he clerked. She falls ill and dies after an unsuccessful childbirth and David marries Agnes Wickfield, who had been like a sister to him when he lived with her family while he was at Dr. Strong's school.


Great Expectations
By: Charles Dickens
This story concerns the young boy Philip Pirrip (known as ?Pip?) and his development through life after an early meeting with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, who he treats kindly despite his fear. His unpleasant sister and her humorous and friendly blacksmith husband, Joe, bring him up. Crucial to his development as an individual is his introduction to Miss Havisham (one of Dickens? most brilliant portraits), a now aging woman who has given up on life after being jilted at the altar. Cruelly, Havisham has brought up her daughter Estella to revenge her own pain and so as Pip falls in love with her she is made to torture him in romance. Aspiring to be a gentleman despite his humble beginnings, Pip seems to achieve the impossible by receiving a fund of wealth from an unknown source and being sent to London with the lawyer Jaggers.


Hard Times
By: Charles Dickens
Dickens' concern with social and environmental issues, urban crime, child abuse, poverty and exploitation makes him very much a writer for our own time, partly because he was so very much a writer of his time. His characters face many of the same problems that concern us today: problems of industrial and political change and dislocation. Whereas we are concerned at the introduction of computer technology, and the resultant loss of employment, the Victorians were concerned about the use of steam power and the decline of cottage craft industries. This novel describes the social problems caused by Britains nation's rapid industrialization. During this period working-class political agitation made many in England fear that revolution was imminent.


Hunted Down and The Wreck of the Golden Mary
By: Charles Dickens
Hunted Down: The sale of insurance is not the mundane thing we supose it to be. At least not for Mr. Sampson, the narrator of this little story of intrigue.
Wreck of the Golden Mary: This, as well as I can tell it, is the full and true account of how I came to be placed in charge of the lost passengers and crew of the Golden Mary, on the morning of the twenty-seventh day after the ship struck the Iceberg, and foundered at sea.


Illustrated Oliver Twist
By: Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist is a stinging commentary on the class system of Victorian England. The author uses the protagonist, a young orphan,as an archetypical victim of the growing influence of the middle class and its intolerance of the poor. Although Dickens's use of the novel as a vehicle to express his opinion of the social conditions of the time, his writings are extremely drawn out and can sometimes be difficult for the reader to comprehend the plot of the novel. Overall, Oliver Twist gives its readers a valuable insight into the author's view of Victorian England, but one should read the book thoroughly to understand its context.
Elegant Solutions proudly presents our first illustrated classic. Here is Oliver Twist with the original paintings by Donald Teague.
This book has been specifically formatted for the Pocket PC.


Oliver Twist
By: Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist is a stinging commentary on the class system of Victorian England. The author uses the protagonist, a young orphan,as an archetypical victim of the growing influence of the middle class and its intolerance of the poor. Although Dickens's use of the novel as a vehicle to express his opinion of the social conditions of the time, his writings are extremely drawn out and can sometimes be difficult for the reader to comprehend the plot of the novel. Overall, Oliver Twist gives its readers a valuable insight into the author's view of Victorian England, but one should read the book thoroughly to understand its context.


Pictures From Italy
By: Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens' pleasant recollections of his travels to Italy.
'This Book is a series of faint reflections - mere shadows in the water - of places to which the imaginations of most people are attracted in a greater or less degree, on which mine had dwelt for years, and which have some interest for all.
--Charles Dickens

This book was contributed by Jessica Chew


The Chimes and The Hollly Tree
By: Charles Dickens
'The Chimes' celebrates New Year's Eve rather than Christmas, reminding the reader that there is always something for which to be grateful. In '
The Holly Tree,' the narrator is an old man who tells his Christmas story, which is that he came close to forsaking his bride. The tragedy was prevented by a providential snowstorm which confined him to an inn and delayed his departure.


The Mystery of Edwin Drood
By: Charles Dickens
The story of a young man, on his own, who goes astray for all the right, or wrong, reasons. From a common and happy beginning, where will he end up?


The Old Curiosity Shop
By: Charles Dickens
Replete with the familiar Dickensian themes of poverty and gloom, this story takes place in cold and brutal 1840s London. Here the old codger Trent lives in the back of his curio shop with his adopted granddaughter Nell. He struggles to control his gambling habit, but his loan shark Quip, whose devotion to cruelty is almost religious, seems always on the verge of closing in. When Quip finally comes to collect his debts, Trent and the girl escape to the countryside to start their lives anew. Despite their good intentions, Trent's past, embodied by Quip, refuses to let them be. While this book was being written in serial form, it was so popular that sailors returning to port in England were known to shout to people on shore to ask what was going on with Little Nell.


The Pickwick Papers
By: Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers explores the perils, travels, and adventures of the Pickwick Club's members: the founding chairman, former businessman and amateur scientist Mr. Pickwick; his trusted companion Sam Weller; the sportsman Winkle; the poet Snodgrass; and the lover Tracy Tupman.
First published serially from 1836 to 1837 under the pseudonym Boz and in book form in 1837. This first fictional work by Dickens was originally commissioned as a series of glorified captions for the work of caricaturist Robert Seymour. His witty, episodic accounts of the kindly, naive Samuel Pickwick and his friends in the Pickwick Club were instantly successful in their own right, however, and made Dickens a literary sensation.


The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
By: Charles Dudley Warner
It is extremely hard to find any information on Charles Dudley Warner even though he was a prolific writer of essays, articles and books. Here is the first of four volumes of the complete writings of Charles Dudley Warner. Reading Warner's work is like talking with an old friend. You will surely enjoy theis first of four volumes.
Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900, American editor and author, b. Plainfield, Mass., grad. Hamilton College, 1851, LL.B. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1858. After practicing law in Chicago, he was associate editor and publisher of the Hartford, Conn., Courant. The many travel articles he contributed to the Courant and to Harper's Magazine were later published in book form. Warner edited the 'American Men of Letters' series, for which he wrote a life of Washington Irving, and the 'Library of the World's Best Literature' (30 vol., 1896-97). He wrote several novels and collaborated with Mark Twain on The Gilded Age (1873). My Summer in a Garden (1871) is one of several collections of his polished, charming essays.


The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Volume 3
By: Charles Dudley Warner
'So many conflicting accounts have appeared about my casual encounter with an Adirondack bear last summer that in justice to the public, to myself, and to the bear, it is necessary to make a plain statement of the facts. Besides, it is so seldom I have occasion to kill a bear, that the celebration of the exploit may be excused.' So begins Charles Dudley Warner's chapter on 'Killing a Bear'. This third volume in the complete works of Warner details the killing of a bear, How Spring came to New England and the stroy of Captain John Smith. Warner is excellent reading and an excellent education as well.


The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Volume 4
By: Charles Dudley Warner
In this final volume we have Warner's 'On Being A Boy' and 'On Horseback' both delightful accounts of youth and travel. Somehow we an still easily identify with Warner as we read these accounts so many years later.


The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Volume II
By: Charles Dudley Warner
I should not like to ask an indulgent and idle public to saunter about with me under a misapprehension. It would be more agreeable to invite it to go nowhere than somewhere; for almost every one has been somewhere, and has written about it. The only compromise I can suggest is, that we shall go somewhere, and not learn anything about it. The instinct of the public against any thing like information in a volume of this kind is perfectly justifiable; and the reader will perhaps discover that this is illy adapted for a text-book in schools, or for the use of competitive candidates in the civil-service examinations.
     Years ago, people used to saunter over the Atlantic, and spend weeks in filling journals with their monotonous emotions. That is all changed now, and there is a misapprehension that the Atlantic has been practically subdued; but no one ever gets beyond the rolling forties' without having this impression corrected.


Memoirs Of Extraordinary Popular Delusions
By: Charles Mackay
In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. We see one nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming crazed upon a religious scruple, and neither of them recovering its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and sowed a harvest of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity. At an early age in the annals of Europe its population lost their wits about the Sepulchre of Jesus, and crowded in frenzied multitudes to the Holy Land: another age went mad for fear of the Devil, and offered up hundreds of thousands of victims to the delusion of witchcraft. At another time, the many became crazed on the subject of the Philosopher's Stone, and committed follies till then unheard of in the pursuit. It was once thought a venial offence in very many countries of Europe to destroy an enemy by slow poison. Persons who would have revolted at the idea of stabbing a man to the heart, drugged his pottage without scruple. Ladies of gentle birth and manners caught the contagion of murder, until poisoning, under their auspices, became quite fashionable. Some delusions, though notorious to all the world, have subsisted for ages, flourishing as widely among civilized and polished nations as among the early barbarians with whom they originated, -- that of duelling, for instance, and the belief in omens and divination of the future, which seem to defy the progress of knowledge to eradicate entirely from the popular mind. Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. To trace the history of the most prominent of these delusions is the object of the present pages. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.


The San Francisco Calamity
By: Charles Morris, Ll. D.
In 1906 an devastating earthquake struck San Francisco. As did the flood which destroyed much of Johnstown, Pennsylvania in May of 1889, the earthquake was followed by a fire of emmense proportions. When we think of the San Francisco earthquake we think of the more recent one because that is a part of our personal memory. But here is the story of personal memories of those who lived through the 1906 quake, told in their own words. Also in this book are stories of other natural disasters through the history of the world.


Jane Eyre
By: Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre a sweeping, disturbing, intense, thrilling, very romantic gothic love story, written in the voice a very intense, almost claustrophobically self-aware young heroine. Jane is no Ophelia - she's a complicated, remarkable character, and a very strong female character in a genre that usually draws women as beautiful victims at best.
There's something for everyone in this book: Windswept castles, difficult and neurotic family members, dark secrets about tragic former lovers, good triumphing over evil, all that good juicy stuff that makes a great romantic story. What elevates Jane Eyre is Bronte's remarkable style & skill and her sharp and complex characterizations.
Kate Halleron contributed this book.


The Golf Course Mystery
By: Chester K. Steele
There was nothing in that clear, calm day, with its blue sky and its flooding sunshine, to suggest in the slightest degree the awful tragedy so close at hand - that tragedy which so puzzled the authorities and which came so close to wrecking the happiness of several innocent people.
This mystery, my friends, is not all fun and games!


Lincoln's Yarns and Stories
By: Colonel Alexander K. McClure
We think of Abraham Lincoln as a great president, the man whose Emancipation Proclamation freed more than four million slaves, was a keen politician, profound statesman, shrewd diplomatist, a thorough judge of men and possessed of an intuitive knowledge of affairs. He was the first Chief Executive to die at the hands of an assassin.
But 'Honest Abe' was a story teller and humorist bar none. He had an innate sense of timing and understanding of when to use humor. One is reminded that perhaps Lincoln understood the story telling power that Jesus had and used, and that perhaps this man tried to emulate Jesus.


Divine Love
By: Dame Julian Of Norwich
Julian of Norwich, an anchoress from 14th century England who is best known for this theological tract, sets out an interesting belief system in which she concentrates on the womanly nature of Christ and God. Julian had sixteen visions which she referred to as 'showings' while she was suffering an illness. These showings revealed divine messages from God that Julian then set to paper through scribes.
Her parable about man falling in sin is excellent and fun to read. It's important to understand that Europe was being rocked by the Black Death and that the Church was wrapped up in a schism while Julian was pondering her visions. The upsetting descriptions of Christ's suffering and his motherly attention to man makes more sense when the reader understands that half of Europe was dying and faith was being seriously challenged.


Robinson Crusoe
By: Daniel Defoe
As a boy growing up in 17th Century England, all Robinson Crusoe wanted to do was be a sailor. His parents tried to dissuade him -- it was a dangerous occupation, and certainly a middle class child like him could find a calling much safer and more comfortable. Naturally, he didn't listen, and essentially ran away from home, finding opportunities to sail on a few ships and encountering a few dangers until he finally reached Brazil, bought a plantation, and looked forward to that comfortable life of prosperity his parents said would be his if he'd only use his head.
But Crusoe is one to push fate. He embarks on a ship bound for Africa to collect slaves, and during a storm in the Caribbean Sea, the ship is wrecked and the crew drowned except for Crusoe, who manages to swim to the shore of a deserted island. Unable to get back to civilization, he salvages as many goods as he can from the wrecked ship and resolves to survive as long as possible in this new, unwelcome habitat.
Crusoe's resourcefulness is astounding. He builds a sophisticated hut/tent/cave complex to live in, hunts goats and fowl, harvests fruit, and figures out how to grow barley, rice, and corn, bake bread, and make earthenware vessels. After living this way for nearly two peaceful decades, Crusoe discovers that savages from a distant island are using his island for their cannibal feasts. He manages to save the life of one of their potential victims, a savage he names Friday, who becomes his faithful servant. With Friday's help, Crusoe realizes he now has a chance to escape the island once and for all and get back to civilization, although his plans don't proceed quite as he envisioned them.
'Robinson Crusoe' is a neatly woven adventure yarn, but under the surface there are several themes. The most apparent is that the novel seems like a morality tale -- i.e., hard work and faith in God will see you through bad times; virtue is rewarded and arrogance is punished. Another theme is that although nature can be a cruel foe, man is better off learning to work in harmony with it than struggling against it. Most interesting to me, though, is that reading about Crusoe's self-education in the art of survival is like witnessing the anthropological process of how civilization developed from savagery.


The Divine Comedy
By: Dante Alighieri
Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Inferno, the opening section of Dante Alighieri's epic theological poem La Divina Commedia, is one of the indispensable works of the Western literary canon. The modern concept of hell and damnation owes everything to this work, and it is the rock upon which vernacular Italian was built. Its influence is woven into the very fabric of Western imagination, and poets, painters, scholars, and translators return to it endlessly.
As Dante ascends the Mount of Purgatory toward the Earthly Paradise and his beloved Beatrice, through 'that second kingdom in which the human soul is cleansed of sin,' all the passion and suffering, poetry and philosophy are rendered with the immediacy of a poet of our own age.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


A Voyage to Arcturus
By: David Lindsay
Lindsay takes us on a gripping journey through a planet where good and evil are not only locked in struggle, but cloaked in impenetrable disguise. It is the hero Maskull's task to unmask the truth, and thereby attain his own redemption. The real genius of this book lies in its ability to defy prediction. At no stage does the reader have the slightest inkling of where the narrative might be heading, or how the threads might eventually tie up; but one is nevertheless compelled to read on. A definite must-read for all sci-fi and fantasy buffs; would also be enjoyed by visual artists, psychoanalysts, anyone interested in pagan religion, or just anyone who likes great descriptive writing.


Shadow of Love
By: Dick Claassen
This copyright romance delves into the modern day online dating and romance. What does happen when two people meet on-line? the results are not far from the truth.


Messer Marco Polo
By: Donn-Byrne
A mixture of three elements give this simple tale a unique flavor. A modern Irishman tells the adventures of a Christian Italian in pagan China. Irish mysticism mingles with the mystery of the east for a romantic and tragic love story based upon the visit of Marco Polo to the court of Kubla Kahn. In one framework we have folk tale, history and imagination . His simple narrative style is a kind very rarely found among modern authors: it suggests the fireside stories and poems of the past which passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.


Edison His Life And Inventions
By: Dyer & Martin
Thomas Alva Edison is one of America's most famous inventors. Edison saw huge change take place in his lifetime. He was responsible for making many of those changes occur. His inventions created and contributed to modern night lights, movies, telephones, records and CDs. Edison was truly a genius.
Edison is most famous for his development of the first electric light bulb. When Edison was born, electricity had not been developed. By the time he died, entire cities were lit by electricity. Much of the credit for electricity goes to Edison.
Some of his inventions were improvements on other inventions, like the telephone. Some of his inventions he deliberately tried to invent, like the light bulb and the movie projector. But some inventions he stumbled upon, like the phonograph. Of all his inventions, Edison was most proud of the phonograph.
Edison invented and improved upon things that transformed our world. Some things he invented by himself. Some things he invented with other people. Just about all his inventions are things we still use in some form today. Throughout his life, Edison tried to invent things that everyone could use.
Edison created the world's first 'invention factory'. He and his partners invented, built and shipped the product - all in the same complex. This was a new way to do business. Today many businesses have copied Edison's invention factory design.


A Child's Christmas In Wales
By: Dylan thomas
There is the story of one day in the life of a young boy growing up in wales. This is probably my favorite secular Christmas story. It is filled with fun and joy and just a bit of the mystery that a boy feels at Christmas.


A Room With A View
By: E. M. Forrester
This is the tale of Lucy Honeychurch and her forbidden love for George Emerson, the unsuitable young man she meets in Italy. While social mores dictate that she make a match with the more proper gentleman, Cecil Vyse, who is courting her, Lucy is torn between passion and propriety. Ultimately, she chooses Emerson who reminds her of 'a room with a view' offering her a new vista on life.


Five Children and It
By: E. Nesbit
You will be struck by E. Nesbit's boundless imagination, sharp wit, and dead-on dialogue. The heroes of the story are real kids with real personalities - rare even now, much less in a Victorian children's novel. Many scenes will make you laugh even at the upteenth reading, such as when the kids have to think up 'Red Indian' names on the fly and come up with Panther, Squirrel, and Bobs of the Cape Mounted Police. This book is strongly recommended to anyone who enjoys the Harry Potter books, as it offers a similar blend of magic, adventure, humor, and memorable characters
Courtesy: Shaenon K. Garrity
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Enchanted Castle
By: E. Nesbit
This book is a delight for adults and children alike. The way Nesbit captures the essences of the children down to the very last detail is impressive. The scenes that she presents appeare as though they have come out of a dream. The characters are heartening and the story is so elaboartely woven that you will marvle. You won't be dissappointed.


The Railway children
By: E. Nesbit
The three children, Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis are living a lovely, secure life at Edgecomb Villa. Their father returns home after being away on business, two unknown men come to visit him in the evening after supper, and he simply disappears. Neither the reader nor the children know what has happened to him until Bobbie makes a chance discovery and learns the horrible truth.
In the intervening time, their mother, a capable and charming woman, takes her children to live in the country near a railway station, because they must 'play at being poor for a while.' The children handle their new situation with grace and wit, spending hours hanging about the railway station and generally keeping themselves busy, and in the process becoming fast friends with the porter, Perks, and the station master. They also become acquainted with their own old gentleman who lends a hand to help them time and again.


The Kingdom of the Blind
By: E. Phillips Oppenheim
Lord Romsey commenced his luncheon with an air of relief. He was a man of little more than middle-age, powerfully built, inclined to be sombre, with features of a legal type, heavily jawed. 'Always tactful, dear hostess,' he murmured. 'As a matter of fact, nothing but the circumstance that it was your invitation and that Madame Selarne was to be present, brought me here to-day. It is so hard to avoid speaking of the great things, and for a man in my position,' he added, dropping his voice a little, 'so difficult to say anything worth listening to about them, without at any rate the semblance of indiscretion.'


Howards End
By: E.M. Forrester
The country home called Howards End is England...and Forster, through this novel, sets out to determine who shall inherit it. To answer this question, the author examines the merits of the prevailing forces of his time characterized by the doomed, brooding proletariat (Bast), the pensive, soul-searching intellectuals (the Schlegel sisters) and the obtuse but prosperous business tycoons (the Wilcoxes). Infused throughout the entire drama is the phantom of Mrs. Wilcox who, like Ben Kenobi of Star Wars, perishes early in the tale yet maintains an even more powerful presence from beyond the grave.
A judicious arbitrator, Forster provides a multidimensional vision of all of his main characters, with their virtues and flaws enjoying equal time in the spotlight. But Forster also takes us one step further, demonstrating through the relationship of Henry Wilcox and Margaret Schlegel that love can bring wholeness and healing to the liberal intellectual and the coarse businessman alike. Though one might presuppose the writer's sympathies to lie with the idealist Margaret, he uses her perspective to appreciate the virtues of Henry the capitalist. 'He never bothered over the mysterious or the private. The Thames might run inland from the sea, the chauffeur might conceal all passion...they knew their business and he knew his....Some 20 years her senior, he preserved a gift that she supposed herself to have already lost-not youth's creative power, but its self-confidence and optimism.'
Although Forster allows Margaret to humanize the Wilcoxes, he refuses to romanticize them. Margaret alone provides the heart and soul of the relationship, picking up the pieces when Henry's material world comes crashing down upon him. The tentative but enduring relationship between Margaret and Henry is encouraging for a politically polarized 21st century America-a timeless reminder that a commitment to love, patience and understanding can still conquer idealogical alienation. And although the proletariat fares tragically, his offspring is perhaps the most triumphant of all. It is through love that all of the diverse inhabitants of Howards End inherit their domain in the end.


Where Angels Fear to Tread
By: E.M. Forrester
'Let her go to Italy!' he cried. 'Let her meddle with what she doesn't understand! Look at this letter! The man who wrote it will marry her, or murder her, or do for her somehow. He's a bounder, but he's not an English bounder. He's mysterious and terrible. He's got a country behind him that's upset people from the beginning of the world.'
When a young English widow takes off on the grand tour and along the way marries a penniless Italian, her in-laws are not amused. That the marriage should fail and poor Lilia die tragically are only to be expected. But that Lilia should have had a baby -- and that the baby should be raised as an Italian! -- are matters requiring immediate correction by Philip Herriton, his dour sister Harriet, and their well-meaning friend Miss Abbott.
In his first novel, E. M. Forster anticipated the themes of cultural collision and the sterility of the English middle class that he would develop in A Room with a View and A Passage to India. Where Angels Fear to Tread is an accomplished, harrowing, and malevolently funny book, in which familiar notions of vice and virtue collapse underfoot and the best intentions go mortally awry.


Spoon River Anthology
By: Edgar Lee Masters
Masters has written not fables, but the essence of American life. He hasn't captured the life and times of 1915, but has instead recorded in 1915 the life and times of our present day America.
The same reason the paintings of Norman Rockwell makes sense is why Edgar Lee Masters poetry makes sense. To read the quick messages on the gravestone of one man, learning a little bit him, and something about a neighbor or two, we can learn a little about how we live in communities today.
Our lives, like Jimmy Stewart's character in 'It's a Wonderful Life' found out, interact and impact everyone we meet. Who we love, who we should love and who we reject. And when we die, others feel the loss. Masters has aptly put this in a humorous, yet insightful way into short verses.
The poems don't rhyme. The meter is not solid, and the poetics aren't intricate. They aren't poems like Poe's or Dickinson, not in the way they wrote American poems. Don't expect iambic pentameter-based sonnets or villanelles. Expect a conversation, and listen in.
The poetry here is in the subtle use of social nuance. In the nuances are his insight and wit. Two readings will bring to light what you miss in the first.
Download this book, read it slow. It reads faster than most poetry books, but don't get caught in the temptation to zoom through each poem just because you can.
After you read it, see the play if it happens to be performed in your town.
Courtesy: Anthony Trendl


A Princess Of Mars
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
'Princess of Mars' is an astounding piece of fantasy. First story of ERB to be published in 1912, it contains the seeds of lots of scfi and Fantasy novels to come in the following years. Also we may detect some traits of Tarzan in John Carter character. It's a pleasure to read so 'fresh' adventures depicting a whole planet culture, interaction between different races, monsters, ecology, inventions far ahead of ERB real world, as 'rifles with explosive bullets guided by wireless sensors'. It amazes me how ERB can master in a not so extensive text (for our standards); a high paced action story. Even if this book is 90 years old, you will enjoy it from the first to the last page.
Courtesy: Maximiliano F Yofre


At the Earths Core
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), after a brief service in the US cavalry, persued a business career which was punctuated with intermissions as a gold miner, storekeeper, cowboy in Idaho and a police officer in Salt Lake City. He finally found success as a writer in 1914. His first novel, 'Tarzan of the Apes', was an immediate success.
Even though he is famous for his Tarzan series, Burroughs also is well known for his science fiction series such as John Carter of Mars, the Land Time Forgot and other series. Burroughs also wrote a number of less well known individual novels on various topics. Quiet Vision brings you a selection of these novels. Although far less plausible and possessing characters of much less depth than Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, Burrough's At the Earth's Core, despite some embarrassingly preposterous elements, is an entertaining read due to its well-rendered, imaginative fantasy setting and fast-paced swashbuckling adventure. The story is never dull, and the hideous and hypnotic bat-winged Mayars make for memorable villains. The depiction of a human sacrifice to these monsters halfway through the novel is particularly unforgettable. There is also a multifarious array of attacking prehistoric monsters, without the claustrophobic feel of the 1970's film.


Out of Time's Abyss
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
This is the third in the of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Land That Time Forgot trilogy.
On Caprona, the Land that Time Forgot, all of the world's savage past still lives. Here are dinosaurs and flying reptiles, here are the most primitive of cavemen and the last of the Bronze Age barbarians. But there is one more secret that the claws and fangs and sharp-edged spears guard most of all. This is the story of the man who tried to find that final secret. When Bradley the adventurer dares to cross the last terrible barrier to the heart of Caprona, he enters a world of wonder, terror and danger beyond the imagination of any man - except the imagination of Edgar Rice Burroughs.


Pellucidar
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Although Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote many stories about societies of the distant future or past, peopled with anything from prehistoric creatures to aliens, I believe that this is the best representation of his talent for writing fast paced, fun to read science fiction. Although he did not have the advantage modern authors do of capitalizing on recent scientific advances for story material, he draws the reader in, especially in this book, with his ability to create a world of wild imagination and make the reader feel like they are part of the action. This is the book which made me an avid Burroughs fan and encouraged me to read the Mars, Tarzan (and other Pellucidar novels) in their entirety.


Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan is returning to Opar, a forgotten city, with vaults filled with gold destined for the lost continent of Atlantis. Waiting for Tarzan is Lia, who had tried to sacrifice him on the altar of the Flaming God. Her priests are waiting for Tarzan's return and he is ready to meet them when an earthquake strikes. He is left in the vaults with nothing but his memory of the wild apes who raised him.


Tarzan of the Apes
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
First published in 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs's romance has lost little of its force over the years. Tarzan of the Apes is very much a product of its age: replete with bloodthirsty natives and a bulky, swooning American Negress, and haunted by what zoo specialists now call charismatic megafauna (great beasts snarling, roaring, and stalking, most of whom would be out of place in a real African jungle). Burroughs countervails such incorrectness, however, with some rather unattractive representations of white civilization--mutinous, murderous sailors, effete aristos, self-involved academics, and hard-hearted cowards. At Tarzan's heart rightly lies the resourceful and hunky title character, a man increasingly torn between the civil and the savage, for whom cutlery will never be less than a nightmare.
The passages in which the nut-brown boy teaches himself to read and write are masterly and among the book's improbable, imaginative best. How tempting it is to adopt the ten-year-old's term for letters--'little bugs'! And the older Tarzan's realization that civilized 'men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the jungle,' while not exactly a new notion, is nonetheless potent. The first in Burroughs's serial is most enjoyable in its resounding oddities of word and thought, including the unforgettable 'When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled; and smiles are the foundation of beauty.'


Tarzan The Terrible
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Lieutenant Obergatz had fled in terror from the seeking vengeance of Tarzan of the Apes. And with him, by force, he had taken Tarzan's beloved mate, Jane. Now the ape-man was following the faint spoor of their flight, into a region no man had ever penetrated. The trail led across seemingly impassable marshes into Pal-ul-don -- a savage land where primitive Waz-don and Ho-don fought fiercely, wielding knives with their long, prehensile tails -- and where mighty triceratops still survived from the dim dawn of time . . . And far behind, relentlessly pursuing, came Korak the Killer.
NOTEThis book contains a glosasary at the end. Users of Microsoft Reader versin 1.x may not be able to access the glossary on the Pocket PC,


The Beasts of Tarzan.
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
As the rich Lord Greystoke, Tarzan found himself the target of greedy, evil men, the villainous Rokoff and Petrovich . His son is taken to Africa to be raised by cannibals, Jane is to receive a 'fate worse than death and Tarzan is marooned on a desert island, Tarzan's plight seemed helpless. But with the help of Sheeta, the ferocious panther, and the great ape Akut, Tarzan crafted his escape with the giant Mugambi. Yet the trail of the kidnappers led deep into the interior--and it would take all of Tarzan's skills to reach his family in time. But following in the footsteps of his father, he reverts to a savage stage while battling for the lives of himself and his love.


The Chessmen of Mars
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Helium, a spoiled princess and John Carter's daughter, rejects Gahan, Jed of Gathol, as a suitor and foolishly flys off into a great storm. Gahan gives chase. By the time he finally catches up to Tara, she has forgotten who he is, and he assumes the name Turjun, a panthan mercenary. Together they challenge the power of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, whose barbaric nation of Red Men have preyed upon Gathol for centuries. The Manatorians have elevated Jetan, Martian chess, to an unprecedented level of skill and excitement: they use live chessmen who fight for live princesses. Gahan finds himself fighting for Tara on the chessboard of Manator, and haunting O-Tar's palace.


The Gods Of Mars
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
John Carter remains the perfect Virginian gentleman, upon returning to his beloved Barsoom, respecting women, seeking no unfair advantage, while fighting plants, animals and multiple races of Martians. He must struggle to overcome them all, if he is to set free his beloved Dejah Thoris from a nested series of 'Heavens within Heavens.' If he wins, what will happen to religion on Mars? And If he loses...


The Land that Time Forgot
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Burroughs concocts a fabulous microworld, located somewhere in the South Pacific, called Caspak. On this mountainous island live winged, humanlike creatures, dinosaurs, ferocious beasts of prey, Neanderthals, 'wild ape-men,' and monstrous reptiles; they terrorize each other, to say nothing of the mixed crew of World War I-era adventurers who inadvertently land on a Caspakian beach and fight their way across the island, dining on Plesiosaurus steaks and having a grand old time in the company of a jungle princess. The story streaks onward like a bullet toward its surprise ending, and it's pure fun all the way.


The Lost Continent
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
The year is 2137, over 160 years ago the 'Great War' was fought in Europe. The Western Hemisphere stayed out of the conflict, as much as possible, using the slogan: 'The East for the East...The West for the West'. For all this time the USA did not go past 30 degrees or 175 degrees latitude. Until...
The aero-submarine, 'Coldwater' in command of Lieutenant Jefferson Turck is blown past the 30 in a raging storm. Damaged, the ship landed in Europe only to find that it was not the enemy that was expected but something entirely different.


The Mad King
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Set in a tiny European Kingdom moments before WW1, the hero is a man of principle, integrity and action. He travels on holiday to his mother's homeland - she always had spoken of how beautiful it was, but otherwise would tell nothing of her past. He quickly finds himself embroiled in political intrigue, fights for survival, not to mention sword-play as he is mistaken for... the Mad King. But is the King really mad? Or was the story a fabrication of the evil uncle, who wants to rule? The people of the land think he's a hero.


The Monster Men
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
A mad scientist on a tropical island sets out to create life, with monstrous results until 'Number 13' is created. Edgar Rice Burrough's usual plot devices (damsel in distress, heroism against long odds) are well used here. An engaging read ... better than 'Pelucidar' but not as good as 'Tarzan of the Apes.'
Courtesy J. Newton


The Mucker
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Billy Byrne was a product of the streets and alleys of Chicago's great West Side. From Halsted to Robey, and from Grand Avenue to Lake Street there was scarce a bartender whom Billy knew not by his first name. And, in proportion to their number which was considerably less, he knew the patrolmen and plain clothes men equally as well, but not so pleasantly.
And so the life and times of Billy Byrne.


The Oakdale Affair
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
With no disrespect meant, this story is somehow reminiscent of Scooby Doo! It has all the elements of the genre. The town of Oakdale is struck with a mystery involving robbery, marriage and the disappearance of a young girl. Things look one way, but are they really as they appear?


The Outlaw Of Torn
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
'The Outlaw of Torn' is one of his best yarns. Henry III of England insults Sir Jules de Vac, who takes his vengeance by kidnapping young Prince Richard, a figure, Burroughs points out, who has been lost to the pages of history. As Norman, the Outlaw of Torn, the young man becomes the greatest swordsman in England and a fearless outlaw with a price upon his head who raises an army loyal only to him. Of course, although he is ignorant of his noble birth, he is drawn to the lovely Bertrade de Montfort, daughter of the King's brother-in-law, the Earl of Leicester. This romance fits in nicely with the plans of de Vac, who contrives situations for the king to be responsible for killing his own son. The obvious comparison for 'The Outlaw of Torn' is with Robin Hood, but Burroughs' pulp novel has its own tale to tell. This is one of his best novels and as an example of the pulp fiction of the early 20th century it is a first-class work.
Courtesy: Lawrance M. Bernabo


The People That Time Forgot
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
This is the second segment of Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'Land That Time Forgot' trilogy and is considered the best of the three. ex-cowboy tom billings leads a rescue mission to save Bowen Tyler, the protagonist of the first novel of the series, 'Land That Time Forgot', and manages to have more trouble keeping his own hide intact than in finding his friend. Remember, this was written in the 1920s, but the adventure holds up even today. anyone not familiar with Edgar Rice Burroughs, prepare for a treat!


The Return of Tarzan
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan had renounced his right to the woman he loved, and civilization held no pleasure for him. After a brief and harrowing period among men, he turned back to the African jungle where he had grown to manhood. It was there he first heard of Opar, the city of gold, left over from fabled Atlantis. It was a city of hideous men -- and of beautiful, savage women, over whom reigned La, high priestess of the Flaming God. Its altars were stained with the blood of many sacrifices. Unheeding of the dangers, Tarzan led a band of savage warriors toward the ancient crypts and the more ancient evil of Opar.


The Son Of Tarzan
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
If you liked Edgar Rice Burrough's first novel, chances are you'll like the fourth of the series. Tarzan's son finds himself somewhat in his father's shoes, although their situations are reversed; Jack Greystoke starts a civilized English boy before circumstances force him to become an African tree-swinger like his father before him. Although the plot may feel familiar, the adventures are still exciting, and this is one of the last Tarzan books really worth reading, since it still contains continuity from the preceding novels (Burroughs went to a much more discontinuous adventure style later in the series). If only to hear Tarzan lecture his son on the evils of jungle life, Son of Tarzan is worth reading. It's deja vu all over again, but worth the trip.


Thuvia, Maid of Mars
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Thuvia, Maid of Mars, passes the torch from father to son as Carthoris, son of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, pursues the heart of the princess Thuvia. To her secret shame Thuvia returns Carthoris' love, but she is already promised to another. When a rival prince kidnaps Thuvia and frames Carthoris for the deed, the son of the Warlord of Mars sets out to rescue the woman he loves no matter what it will cost him.
Undoubtedly the most disturbing but tense part of the story falls in the city of Lothar, where Carthoris and Thuvia must do battle with ancient Barsoomians who possess incredible powers of the mind. And the most unlikely hero of all turns out to be a fignment of a character's imagination. This book is a good demonstration of how Burroughs' world of Barsoom was filled with its own stories, and not just a convenient backdrop for John Carter's adventures


Warlord of Mars
By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs covers vast expanses of Barsoomian territory in John Carter's whirlwind pursuit of his beloved Dejah Thoris. The gentle pokes in the eye at religion, evolution, science, and even racism continue but do not impede the readability of the story. Burroughs demonstrates his superb grasp of story-telling and the construction of adventure settings with a flair unsurpassed by any other writer of the 20th century.
Carter finds himself charging headline into a myterious northern world where ancient and legendary yellow men have survived in the harshest Barsoomian environment imaginable. Coincidentally, in classic Burroughsian fashion, Carter uncovers an incredible weapon which could destroy the fragile alliance of Barsoomian nations he has assembled in his long battle with the evil Therns.


Detective Stories From Real Life
By: Edited by Julian Hawthorne
This book contains true detective stories from around the world. Some of the best are taken from P.H. Woodwards 'The Secret Service of the Post Office Department' These are true adventures and are just plain fun to read!


Stories by Modern American Authors
By: Edited by Julian Hawthorne
Here are thirteen lucky tales of terror and mystery written by modern American authors. You will surely enjoy these little gems. But it might be wise to read only when someone else is with you.


Stories of Horror and Mystery
By: edited by Julian Hawthorne
Here is a collection of spine chilling tales of horror and mystery from some of the best. You'll meet old friends like Poe here and perhaps even encounter a new friend or two. Enjoy these stories because they just don't write like this any more.
This series was indexed and annotated by Julian Hawthorne.


Sinking of the Titanic
By: Edited by Logan Marshall
This is the telling of the Titanic tragedy from the point of view as news rather than history. Though recounted a number of years after the event it was still fresh in the lives and minds of the original audience. Factual and well written The Titanic dispels some of the common myths, such as the name of the last song the band played as the ship sank. It was not 'Nearer My God To Thee' as has been widely told. Read this book to find out what song was actually played.


Bunner Sisters
By: Edith Wharton
Bunner Sisters is a tale that goes beyond Wharton's usual surroundings and moves into New York City - into the tenements. The sisters Bunner run a small shop selling notions there. But one of the sisters marries leaving the other to continue her quiet drab existence alone.


Summer
By: Edith Wharton
Charity Royall is a girl from a small town who spends her days face down in the grass dreaming. Enter Lucius Harney, artistic, city guy who for a few months sweeps Charity off of her feet, rescuing her from small town life in North Dormer. Charity turns out to be little more than a side dish for Harney who goes on to marry Ms. Balch; Charity is left depressed, pregnant and forced to marry the middle-age man who raised her, to save her name. The characters have an amazing, brief love affair, but in the end, there is always some impediment, as in Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence. For the realists out there, read this book; those who must have a happy ending, stick to fairytales!


The Age of Innocence
By: Edith Wharton
Somewhere in this book, Wharton observes that clever liars always come up with good stories to back up their fabrications, but that really clever liars don't bother to explain anything at all. This is the kind of insight that makes The Age of Innocence so indispensable. Wharton's story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in this country was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when 'society' had rules as rigid as any in history.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, volume 2
By: Edith Wharton
Edit Wharton, well known for her novels was also a writer of short fiction and of verse. Here in this volume you will find both. Everything from A Venetian Night's Entertainment to Botticelli's Madonna In The Louvre. In the story Xingu you will meet the ladies of the Lunch club, and their distinguished guests. Here you will meet the Spirit of Life who asks quesitions and provides the ultimate answer. Or is it?


The Glimpses Of The Moon
By: Edith Wharton
Set in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. As Susy explains, 'We should really, in a way, help more than hamper each other. We both know the ropes so well; what one of us didn't see the other might -- in the way of opportunities, I mean.' The other part of the plan states that if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially, they're each free to dissolve the marriage. How their plan unfolds is a comedy of eros that will charm all fans of Wharton's work.
This story is much lighter and faster paced than The Age of Innocence. Nick and Susy are attractive, stylish, and interesting; but alas, they are poor. They meet and are instantly attracted to one another. Each has been used to living from friend to friend, receiving lodging and gifts in exchange for their elegant company, but now what will they do? They hatch a plan to get married, enjoy each other under the condoning blanket of matrimony, and live off wedding gifts of money and loaned honeymoon villas for a year or so. Or until either one got a better offer.


The House of Mirth
By: Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth is a wonderful novel describing New York Society at the turn of the century. Lily Bart is a socialite on the lookout for a rich husband. She is beautiful and feels that that is all she has or needs to offer. Her ending is predictably sad, but nonetheless you wish otherwise. Wharton is a master at describing the society of her time. The characters are very vivid, you can almost feel that you know them.


The Reef
By: Edith Wharton
A challenge to the moral climate of the day, The Reef follows the fancies of George Darrow, a young diplomat en route from London to France, intent on proposing to the widowed Anna Leath. Unsettled by Anna's reticence, Darrow drifts into an affair with Sophy Viner, a charmingly naive and impecunious young woman whose relations with Darrow and Anna's family threaten his prospects for success.
Whatever you think of 'The Reef,' it contains one of Edith Wharton's most wonderful scenes. Our 'hero' has been dallying for a while in a hotel with the young girl he picked up on the boat dock, and he's wearying of her. We see his boredom and disillusionment through his reactions to the mere sounds she is making in the next room. He is so familiar by now with her habits and movements that he knows what she's doing without actually seeing her. A gem of a scene, in a strange jewel of a book.


The Touchstone
By: Edith Wharton
This is Wharton's first novella, written at a time when she was still developing her craft as a writer; the story can appear woefully underwritten. Still, the story is mesmerizing and dangerous, a Faustian tale of betrayal, greed and the consequences paid, and the more often you read through it, the more hidden meanings emerge. When you read it, think of the lover who sold Princess Diana's first secrets of their affair to the tabloids, and the consequences since. What ever happened to that man? Perhaps, like Stephen Glennard in 'The Touchstone', he has gone mad from guilt, which, ironically enough, might prove he has a conscious after all.


Cyrano De Bergerac
By: Edmond Rostand
Cyrano -loosely based on the actual Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, an early predecessor of science fiction- is a swordsman for the French King Louis XIII. He is also a man with an extraordinary gift for poetry and versification, as well as the owner of an extremely large nose. He is deeply in love with his cousin Roxanne, but she happens to love Cyrano's friend and colleague, Christian. So, being a good fellow and having a quixotic nature, Cyrano accepts to speak of love to Roxanne, impersonating Christian. Under her window, in the dark, Cyrano recites love poems so well crafted, that Roxanne falls even more in love with Christian, who is the supposed lover. After that, both men leave to fight at war. Roxanne shows up at the siege of Arras, to bring food to the soldiers. There, for reasons I won't spoil here, their love affair comes to an abrupt end, leaving their relationship unfulfilled. What comes next shows the true heroic nature of Cyrano, his strength of character, and his loyalty to his friend, but also to his eternal love for Roxanne. This play, which has originated at least a couple of good movies and several tv interpretations, is a homage to the Romantic spirit so rare in our greedy and selfish times. It is full of beautiful images and scenes, and Rostand's writing is perfect for the task.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron


Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887
By: Edward Bellamy
Here is an interesting book which looks backwards from the year 2000 to the year 1887. It reports the history of the intervening time from the perspective of our present. But the book was written in the nineteenth century, and not the twentieth. Never the less the author, Bellamy, was prescient in many ways. It is told in the form of a narrative of a man who fell asleep in 1887 and woke in 2000. Similar to Rip Van Winkle, only moreso. Some of the imagry is almost chilling, and some os so far off it is humorous. All in all this book is an excellent read.


The Last Days of Pompeii
By: Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Bulwer-Lytton's classic and definitive work on the subject of Pompeii is more a romance than a tragedy. Though the language is dated this is still a very good read. After all it was the basis for the movie.


Cupid's Understudy
By: Edward Salisbury Field
A little money can be a dangerus thing. A lot of money can be even more so. And 'Dad' had a lot of money and it came his way by a 'fluke'. Or as Elizabeth says, 'If Dad had been a coal baron, like Mr. Tudor Carstairs, or a stock- watering captain of industry, like Mrs. Sanderson-Spear's husband, or descended from a long line of whisky distillers, like Mrs. Carmichael Porter, why, then his little Elizabeth would have been allowed the to sit in seat of the scornful with the rest of the Four Hundred, and this story would never have been written. But Dad wasn't any of these things; he was just an old love who had made seven million dollars by the luckiest fluke in the world.'


Flatland
By: Edwin A. Abbott
Subtitled A romance of many dimensions this book is a classic work. Science and math disguised as fiction. It is a joy to read and modern today, though it was written well over one hundred years ago. In this modern age of computers this book has almost become a cult classic. But even if you aren't interested in science or math (there are no formulae in this book) you will still enjoy it.


Puppy Love and An Immodest Proposal
By: Elizabeth Neff Walker and others
Two modern romance stories. Not being a romance reader, I'll be happy to print your synopsis, and credit you for it!


The Red Mans Continent
By: Ellsworth Huntington
In writing this book the author has aimed first to present in readable form the main facts about the geographical environment of American history. Many important facts have been omitted or have been touched upon only lightly because they are generally familiar. On the other hand, special stress has been laid on certain broad phases of geography which are comparatively unfamiliar. One of these is the similarity of form between the Old World and the New, and between North and South America; another is the distribution of indigenous types of vegetation in North America; and a third is the relation of climate to health and energy. In addition to these subjects, the influence of geographical conditions upon the life of the primitive Indians has been emphasized. This factor is especially important because people without iron tools and beasts of burden, and without any cereal crops except corn, must respond to their environment very differently from civilized people of today. Limits of space and the desire to make this book readable have led to the omission of the detailed proof of some of the conclusions here set forth. The special student will recognize such cases and will not judge them until he has read the author's fuller statements elsewhere. The general reader, for whom this book is designed, will be thankful for the omission of such purely technical details.


The Passing of the Frontier
By: Emerson Hough
Emerson Hough's classic history of the American Frontier. This is a book to be treasured by lovers of The Old West.
In the author's own words,
The frontier was the place and the time of the strong man, of the self-sufficient but restless individual. It was the home of the rebel, the protestant, the unreconciled, the intolerant, the ardent-and the resolute. It was not the conservative and tender man who made our history; it was the man sometimes illiterate, oftentimes uncultured, the man of coarse garb and rude weapons. But the frontiersmen were the true dreamers of the nation. They really were the possessors of a national vision. Not statesmen but riflemen and riders made America. The noblest conclusions of American history still rest upon premises which they laid.
In the times when some men needed guns and all men carried them, no pistol of less than 44-caliber was tolerated on the range, the solid framed 45-caliber being the one almost universally used. The barrel was eight inches long, and it shot a rifle cartridge of forty grains of powder and a blunt-ended bullet that made a terrible missile. This weapon depended from a belt worn loose resting upon the left hip and hanging low down on the right hip so that none of the weight came upon the abdomen. This was typical, for the cowboy was neither fancy gunman nor army officer. The latter carries the revolver on the left, the butt pointing forward.


The Jargon File
By: Eric S. Raymond and Guy L. Steele Jr.
From abbrev to wannabee here is the definitive list of computer and hacking terms. A lot of fun to browse and a real help for finding the right term.


The Complete Wandering Jew
By: Eugene Sue
A labyrinthine novel in which seemingly unrelated people all over the world become the victims of a fiendish Jesuit plot. Sue's contraption feels like the blueprint for 20th-century conspiracy theories at their most paranoid


Flappers And Philosophers
By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald's first anthology contains eight stories of jazz-age youth, those whom the author called 'romantic egoists.' Notably present?the still popular 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair,' the superbly written 'Ice Palace,' and 'The Off-Shore Pirate. Fitzgerald can paint a story onto the pages of his novels so well. His detailed descriptions give the reader the feeling of being there.He has defined the Jazz Age as no one else can. This book really takes its readers to another time.


This Side Of Paradise
By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise is beautiful, ugly, brave, cowardly, immaculate, flawed. It's paradise lost and paradise regained and paradise in purgatory. It's everything life and man should or shouldn't be, all at once. The reader can perfectly understand why someone wouldn't like this novel, wouldn't understand, wouldn't appreciate, but also understand that if all the world were Amory-ish or Amory-leaning, Amory-sympathetic, Amory-lovers, or even Amory-haters - somehow the world would just collapse and be ruined. This is also a bit of what Fitzgerald was trying to impart, so it is as it should be.


The Green Mummy
By: Fergus Hume
A tomb, a mymmy wrapped in green bandages, a manusctipt, a mystery and a discovery. The mummy of Inca Caxas, which was brought from Malta. What would the Professor find when he stripped the corpse of its green bandages? And where does this mysterious manuscript fit in. It keeps showing up again and again. An early Fergus Hume mystery, more popular than Sherlock Holmes, if you can imagine that!


Christopher Columbus
By: Filson Young
As children in America we all grow up knowing who Christopher Columbus was. It was he who 'discovered' America - or at least the New World. Of course he wasn't trying to prove the world was round. that was already a pretty well accepted theory at that time. Instead he was seeking a short route to the Asian continent, encompassing what we today know as China, Viet Nam, Indonesia (The Dutch East Indies and more.) But, of course we all know what happened. But after that we really don't know much about what happened to Columbus. What little history we learn in elementary school is romanticized and does not go deeply into Columbus' life beyond the basics.
Well at the turn of the century, Filson Young wrote an eight book biography of Columbus. A veryt ambitious project, and well worth the work. For example it was Young who grieved deeply at the state of the Admiral's mental health and lamented about the 'Libro de las profecias,'
Good Heavens! In what an entirely dark and sordid stupor is our Christopher now sunk--a veritable slough and quag of stupor out of which, if he does not manage to flounder himself, no human hand can pull him.
Now here in one volume is everything you ever wanted to know about christopher and a whole lot more. You may be surprised!


Against Apion
By: Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus writes a defense of Judaism, answering an attack by a Roman author named Apion.
We possess understandably few remnants of the ways in which subject nations respondedto Roman disdain. In most cases only the ambiguous witness of material culture givesus access to the voices of the colonised. All the more precious, therefore, is Josephus?Against Apion, where a knowledgeable spokesman for the Judaean tradition is bold enoughto answer back to his cultural critics and skilful enough to do so in terms calculated to winRoman attention. In observing how Josephus deploys Roman stereotypes of Egyptians he unearths somefacets of his rhetorical strategy and to illuminates thereby the cultural and political stance headopts in re-presenting the Judaeans to his Roman or Romanised readers.
Courtesy: John M.G. Barclay


Concerning Hades
By: Flavius Josephus
The historian Falvius Josephus discusses, in this brief work, the difference between the classical version of Hell as envisioned by the Greeks and the reality of Hell as he himself sees it. Presented in eight brief chapters Josephus clarity of thought is evident.


The Antiquities of the Jews
By: Flavius Josephus
Josephus was a priest, a soldier, and a scholar.
He was born Joseph ben Mattathias in Jerusalem in 37 CE ew years after the time of Jesus, during the time of the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. In his early twenties he was sent to Rome to negotiate the release of several priests held hostage by Emperor Nero. When he returned home after completing his mission he found the nation beginning a revolution against the Romans.
Living at the Flavian court in Rome, Josephus undertook to write a history of the war he had witnessed. The work, while apparently factually correct, also served to flatter his patron and to warn other provinces against the folly of opposing the Romans. He first wrote in his native language of Aramaic, then with assistance translated it into Greek (the most-used language of the Empire). It was published a few years after the end of the war, in about 78 CEe was about 40 years old.
Josephus subsequently improved his language skills and undertook a massive work in Greek explaining the history of the Jews to the general non-Jewish audience. He emphasized that the Jewish culture and Bible were older than any other then existing, hence called his work the Jewish Antiquities. Approximately half the work is a rephrasing of the Hebrew Bible, while much of the rest draws on previous historians. This work was published in 93 or 94 CE When he was about 56 years old


The Life of Flavius Josephus
By: Flavius Josephus
Josephus was a priest, a soldier, and a scholar.
He was born Joseph ben Mattathias in Jerusalem in 37 CE ew years after the time of Jesus, during the time of the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. In his early twenties he was sent to Rome to negotiate the release of several priests held hostage by Emperor Nero. When he returned home after completing his mission he found the nation beginning a revolution against the Romans.
Living at the Flavian court in Rome, Josephus undertook to write a history of the war he had witnessed. The work, while apparently factually correct, also served to flatter his patron and to warn other provinces against the folly of opposing the Romans. He first wrote in his native language of Aramaic, then with assistance translated it into Greek (the most-used language of the Empire). It was published a few years after the end of the war, in about 78 CEe was about 40 years old.
Josephus subsequently improved his language skills and undertook a massive work in Greek explaining the history of the Jews to the general non-Jewish audience. He emphasized that the Jewish culture and Bible were older than any other then existing, hence called his work the Jewish Antiquities. Approximately half the work is a rephrasing of the Hebrew Bible, while much of the rest draws on previous historians. This work was published in 93 or 94 CE When he was about 56 years old


The Wars of the Jews
By: Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus himself said in this seminal work, 'Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also who were for innovations, then arose when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin were not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero. And the opportunity now offered induced many to aim at the royal power; and the soldiery affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner it ended.'


A Little Princess
By: Frances Hodgson Burnett
This is a story about a different kind of princess than one might imagine; a princess that is an orphan - lonely, cold, hungry and abused. Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, she is thrown on the non-existent mercy of her small-minded, mercenary boarding school mistress. Stripped of all her belongings but for one set of clothes and a doll, Sara becomes a servant of the household. Hated by the schoolmistress for her independent spirit, Sara becomes a pariah in the household, with only a few secretly loyal friends. But through her inner integrity and strength of will, Sara Crewe maintains the deportment, inner nobility and generous spirit of a 'real' princess.
It is a fabulous story of the triumph of human will, and good over evil.
Courtesy: Margaret Fiore


The Secret Garden
By: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; 'It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together.... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'' As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate. Frances Hodgson Burnett creates characters so strong and distinct, young readers continue to identify with them even 85 years after they were conceived.
Kate Halleron contributed this book.


The Great War Syndicate
By: Frank Stockton
This science fiction novel is unique in that it consists of only one chapter. The plot centers on a group of twenty-three men, a War Syndicate who offer to assume the expense of a war for the United States after a gunfight erupts between two vessels off the Canadian coast. To say the least this is an interesting read.


Crime and Punishment
By: Fyodor Dostoevsk
Translated By Constance Garnett here is the definitive book of crime, passion, remorse and death. Waiting alone in an empty prison, Raskolnikov waits for the completion of his sentence for the crime of murder. But it may be the waiting that is the worst punishment of all.


The Dragon And The Raven
By: G. A. Henty
A masterpiece! In this story Henty gives an account of the fierce struggle between Saxon and Dane for supremacy in England, and presents a vivid picture of the misery and ruin to which the country was reduced by the ravages of the sea-wolves. The hero, a young Saxon thane, takes part in all the battles fought by King Alfred. He is driven from his home and takes to the sea. As he sails his ship, The Dragon against the Raven (his enemy's standard) he encounters adventure, and more! He resists the Danes on their own element, and being pursued by them up the Seine, is present at the long and desperate siege of Paris.
Good plot with terrific action.


The Man Who Was Thursday
By: G. K. Chesterton
He came of a family of cranks, in which all the oldest people had all the newest notions. One of his uncles always walked about without a hat, and another had made an unsuccessful attempt to walk about with a hat and nothing else. His father cultivated art and self-realization; his mother went in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tenderer years, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes of absinthe and cocoa, of both of which he had a healthy dislike.... Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left--sanity.

This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
By: Gen. Lew Wallace
Ben-Hur by Lewis Wallace is a historical novel, published in 1880 and has been widely translated ever since the first edition. The story depicts the oppressive Roman occupation of ancient Palestine and the origins of Christianity. The main character of the novel Judah Ben-Hur is wrongly accused by his former friend Messala (who is a Roman), of attempting to kill a highly ranked Roman official. He is then sent to be a slave on a ship and his mother and sister are imprisoned. Many years later Ben-Hur returns and wins a chariot race against Messala; and is later in the story reunited with his now leprous mother and sister. His mother and sister are cured on the day of the Crucifixion, and the family is converted to Christianity. Overall, I would have to say that Lewis Wallace has created one of the most enduring and entertaining novels of all time; and I would definitely recommend it to anyone remotely interested in well-written literature An interesting saidelight that is usually overlooked about Ben-Hur is that the book was written by Lew Wallace, a general who fought for the Union in the American Civil War.


Personal Memoirs of Gen. Philip Sheridan Volume I
By: Gen. Philip Sheridan
This is the personal memoir of General Philip H. Sheridan, who fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War. This, volume I of a two volume set, begins to tell the story of this famous general. An excellent companion to the memoirs of General Grant.


Personal Memoirs of Gen. Philip Sheridan Volume II
By: Gen. Philip Sheridan
This is the personal memoir of General Philip H. Sheridan, who fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War. This, volume II of a two volume set, continues to tell the story of this famous general. An excellent companion to the memoirs of General Grant.


The Devil's Disciple
By: George Bernard Shaw
An intesting book about the story of the narrow minded puritans fighting back against the british army ,once a great powerful one.


The Perfect Wagnerite
By: George Bernard Shaw
If we're going to have a voice worthy of critiquing the great master, it might as well be Shaw. For those who have not read any Shaw, he's a wickedly entertaining writer, though a bit high brow at times.
This is a book for the Wagnerite and the layman alike, but expect to get a little insulted if you belong to the latter category. As to the philosophies in this little book, just about everyone who likes the Ring has their own unique opinion about its deep political/spiritual meanings, including Shaw.
The book is certainly worth reading, however, just to hear the Shaw's elegant take on the musical masterpiece. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the book is its attack on Gotterdammerung, the beloved finale of the Ring. Shaw argues it is nearly devoid of underlying meaning and is a superficial conclusion to an otherwise philosophically sound work.


Adam Bede
By: George Eliot
Beautiful Hetty Sorell is led by her vanity to succumb to the temptations of the local squire. Those involved in her ensuing tragedy are sensitive, honest Adam Bebe, implicated by his simple idolatry and his fruitless struggles to redeem her, and Dinah, her devout and constant cousin, who comforts her when all appears to be lost. George Eliot adds a poignant, bitter edge to the age-old tale of a woman's destruction through a selfish man's passions, her own weakness and the condemnation of society itself.


Brother Jacob
By: George Eliot
'Brother Jacob' is the story of a confectioner's apprentice who steals from his mother to emigrate to Jamaica where he intends to be given his fortune. Although it is a (sour) moral fable, with every character emerging badly, rather than warmly humanistic, the novels' irritations are here - the bossy, intrusive narration; the portrait of a growing, bourgeois community, lifelessly focusing on their obsessions with status and money, where every metaphor is inextricably linked with commerce and consumption. Each character is a caricature: the 'humour' is smug, smart-alecky, sarcastic and sneering. The tale is full of the details English Literature critics enjoy - colonialism, mental defectives, assumed identities etc.
courtesy: : Darragh O'Donoghue


Middlemarch
By: George Eliot
Dorothea Brooke can find no acceptable outlet for her talents or energy and few who share her ideals. As an upper middle-class woman in Victorian England she can't learn Greek or Latin simply for herself; she certainly can't become an architect or have a career; and thus, Dorothea finds herself 'Saint Theresa of nothing.' Believing she will be happy and fulfilled as 'the lampholder' for his great scholarly work, she marries the self-centered intellectual Casaubon, twenty-seven years her senior. Dorothea is not the only character caught by the expectations of British society in this huge, sprawling book. Middlemarch stands above its large and varied fictional community, picking up and examining characters like a jeweler observing stones. There is Lydgate, a struggling young doctor in love with the beautiful but unsuitable Rosamond Vincy; Rosamond's gambling brother Fred and his love, the plain-speaking Mary Garth; Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's attractive cousin, and the ever-curious Mrs. Cadwallader. The characters mingle and interact, bowing and turning in an intricate dance of social expectations and desires. Through them George Eliot creates a full, textured picture of life in provincial nineteenth-century England.


Silas Marner
By: George Elliot
Silas Marner is a devoutly religious weaver who is unjustly accused of theft. He moves to Raveloe where he becomes fairly reclusive both because he wishes it so and because the villagers find him odd. He devotes himself to the accumulation of wealth, but is once again devastated, this time when he is the victim of theft. Ultimately he is redeemed by a young girl who wanders up to his door. He raises the child and they come to love one another as Father and Daughter. The lesson being that neither religious fanaticism nor the love of filthy lucre will suffice to save a man's soul, but the basic love between two humans will do the trick.


By The Ionian Sea
By: George Gissing
This book is a travelogue of southern Italy. It brings to life places that we may have never heard of as well as places that do have meaning to us. Written after the turn of the century it is a bit 'old' but never the less an enjoyable read.


Anomolies and Curiosoties of Medicine
By: GEORGE M. GOULD, A.M., M.D.
This is exactly what the title implies. But there are some strange and bizarre stories related here. Not for the faint of heart, but worth a look.


Washington And His Comrades In Arms
By: George M. Wrong
This brief biography of George Washington, though written by a Briton for a british audience, admirably tells the story of George Washington and the struggle for independence. In the authors own words, 'If excuse is needed it is to be found in the special interest of the career of Washington to a citizen of the British Commonwealth of Nations at the present time and in the urgency with which the editor and publishers declared that such an interpretation would not be unwelcome to Americans.'


At The Back Of The North Wind
By: George MacDonald
This is a story of a poor stable boy living in Victorian London in which everyday lives are mysteriously enveloped by a power and a glory, personified here as a beautiful woman known as the North Wind. She visits the small boy, Diamond, and takes him with her on her journeys, teaching him about herself. Through the eyes of an innocent and yet perceptive child, MacDonald explores North Wind as a way of exploring the place of death in our lives. He looks squarely at social injustice--he knew poverty and the poor first hand--and yet also sees that the deepest need we have is for love and forgiveness, which are rooted in eternity.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Lilith
By: George MacDonald
Rich in symbolism, steeped in paradox, this is a tale of a man's journey and his coming to terms with the frailty of humanity when it is seen in the light of God. MacDonald never hides the basis of his paradigm--that there is a God who loves us, who knows better than we do what is best for us--rather, he weaves it into a rich tapestry of adventure wherein key characters make known the paradox that is at the heart of Chrisitianity: he who would be first must be last.
This is not an easy read. And, truly, anyone who is not willing to accept that an author may expound his faith through the words and deeds of his characters--indeed, through the fatherly nature of the narative itself--will little likely enjoy reading this tale. But to those who are ready to dive in to the heart of a realm of paradox in an attempt to better know the God that MacDonald worshiped, this may very well be a life-changing story.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Phantastes
By: George MacDonald
'I was dead, and right content,' the narrator says in the penultimate chapter of Phantastes. C.S. Lewis said that upon reading this astonishing 19th-century fairy tale he 'had crossed a great frontier,' and numerous others both before and since have felt similarly. In MacDonald's fairy tales, both those for children and (like this one) those for adults, the 'fairy land' clearly represents the spiritual world, or our own world revealed in all of its depth and meaning. At times almost forthrightly allegorical, at other times richly dreamlike (and indeed having a close connection to the symbolic world of dreams), this story of a young man who finds himself on a long journey through a land of fantasy is more truly the story of the spiritual quest that is at the core of his life's work, a quest that must end with the ultimate surrender of the self. The glory of MacDonald's work is that this surrender is both hard won (or lost!) and yet rippling with joy when at last experienced. As the narrator says of a heavenly woman in this tale, 'She knew something too good to be told.' One senses the same of the author himself.


The Princess and Curdie
By: George MacDonald
This is the sequel to The Princess and the Goblin and takesplace about a year after the happenings with the goblins. Curdie hasgone back to his life as a miner and is slowing becoming nitwitted.One day he shoots a bird relizes that the bird probably belonged tothe princess's great-great grandmother (who has a major role in the first book). He starts to feel remorse and rushes to find the grandmother, they have a long chat. He learns that doing nothing wrong and nothing good is wrong in itself. The Grandmother sends him on a mission to help the King from an unknown danger. It is a great book and has a lot of good values in it, but is still adventureous and appealing to children.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Grand Canyon Of Arizona
By: George Wharton James
Written over one hundred years ago this book is a trravelogue of the Grand Canyon. Quaint, but interesting, it takes you through all the steps necessary for visiting this natural wonder. All in all this is a nice read. Don't try contacting the agencies metioned in the text; none of the have zip codes!


A Book Of Remarkable Criminals
By: H. B. Irving
Here is a book that will chill and thrill you. In these 'modern' days and times we think that crime is rampant but when you read of H.H. Holmes and his death house, or of the other individuals in this book, you'll quickly find that there will always be those who delight in the baser side of life - and death.


The Blue lagoon
By: H. de Vere Stacpoole
This was an excellent story which surprised me to a great extent. Mr Stacpoole is an excellent writer with an ability to convey what it would be like to live on a dream island in the south pacific with a girl of your dreams. Excellent characterizations and a tremendous flow of descriptive words. Almost lyrical in many respects. His writing sometimes approaches poetry. Other passages are worthy of great pathos. I particularly liked the kids discovering death, what pure love is like, thoughts on religion. Just an excellent story written in a style that is no longer seen. Courtesy: Dennis Wilcutt


The Island of Doctor Moreau
By: H. G. Wells
Shipwreck survivors discover the horrors of Dr. Moreau in this classic thriller. Moreau is experimenting on the life forms of his island with horrendous results. And he is always seeking new subjects...


Twelve Stories and a Dream
By: H. G. Wells
When I was a kid I remember reading this book of short stories by H.G. Wells. My reading spot was on the flat roof over my sister's room, at least in the summer time. I can remember reading this book because of the story 'The New Accelerator.' But The Magic Shop also stayed with me from those days. I know that you will enjoy this set of stories form an acclaimed master.


Benita: An African Romance
By: H. Rider Haggard
Haggard believes that the basis of this story is true, though he can not prove it. The basis is tor story of buried treasure, adventure, romance, danger and the suernatural. Putting all those ingredients together will insure another page turning adventure.


King Solomons Mines
By: H. Rider Haggard
In this tale of adventure Allan Quatermain returns to Africa on the elusive quest of finding the fabled gold mines of King Solomon. Join him in his harrowing adventures as he crosses Africa in search of this lost treasure and fends off the peril of his enemies. This is classic Quatermain!

This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Montezumas Daughter
By: H. Rider Haggard
Montezuma's Daughter is a story about love, adventure, war, hate, history and etc. I read this book when I was about 11 years old and I thought it was so amazing that I really would like to reread it again. The author also discribes the characters so clearly that you get an exact picture of who is it that you're reading about. I would recomend this book for everyone because it also has lots of historical facts to it too.
Within the first hundred pages, the hero has gone to Spain to avenge his mother's murder, learned how to be a doctor, helped drug a girl about to be walled in a convent cellar, held prisoner on a slave ship, thrown overboard, and is shipwrecked in Aztec Mexico. It gets better from there. And yet the hero is such a nice man: a novelty these days in adventure stories


Quartermain
By: H. Rider Haggard
After discovering the hidden mines of King Solomon, Allan Quartermain finds that life back in England is too sedate for his liking. With two travel companions he heads back to Africa in search of further adventure. Teaming up with a valiant warrior and a timid French chef, they enter the land of Paradise, Zu-Vendis. But paradise is not without its dangers, and Allan and his band find themselves at odds with the two beautiful sisters who rule Zu-Vendis.


Swallow
By: H. Rider Haggard
Over twenty years have passed since we found some unique opportunities of observing Boer and Kaffir character in company; therefore it is not perhaps out of place that I should ask you to allow me to put your name upon a book which deals more or less with the peculiarities of those races--a tale of the great Trek of 1836.
H. Ryder Haggard


The Wizard
By: H. Rider Haggard
The Wizard is a tale of victorious faith. Originally published as a short story and part of a collection it was part of a Christmas Annual. Like and yet unlike Haggards otehr works it is well worth reading.


The Yellow God
By: H. Rider Haggard
Here is Haggard's fantasy adventure which is set in both Africa and England. This book has it all, a magic mask and other weird fetish objects. A lost race of people, reincarnation, vampirism - an immortal woman's many husbands kept as mummies and so much more. This is extreme adventure!


When the World Shook
By: H. Rider Haggard
Three English chaps are marooned on a mysterious South Seas island. The natives tell of their powerful god Oro; whom the the men discover has been sleeping for a quarter million years. Of course they wake him only to discover that his beautiful daughter is the spitting image of our hero's dead wife, while he is a dead ringer for her lost love...


Bygone Beliefs
By: H. Stanley Redgrove
These Excursions in the Byways of Thought were undertaken at different times and on different occasions; consequently, the reader may be able to detect in them inequalities of treatment.He may feel that I have lingered too long in some byways and hurried too rapidly through others, taking, as it were, but a general view of the road in the latter case, whilst examining everything that could be seen in the former with, perhaps, undue care. As a matter of fact, how ever, all these excursions have been undertaken with one and the same object in view, that, namely, of understanding aright and appreciating at their true worth some of the more curious byways along which human thought has travelled.


A Book of Remarkable Criminals
By: H.B. Irving
Detailed here is everything from Americas most infamous mass murderer to some of the most obscure killers of all time. Not for the faint hearted, this book tells it all.


The First Men In The Moon
By: H.G. Wells
The invention of Cavorite, an anti-gravity substance, propells the protagonists to the moon. Though well written and at times humorous this book attempts, as did Verne's, to depict events based on the lack of knowledge. It is important to the reader to remember that Wells worked within the knowledge base of his day which included the possibility of an atmosphere on the moon, living creatures and more. All in all this is a fun read.


The Time Machine
By: H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells's 1894 novel (his first) describes the adventures of his hero, the time-traveler, mostly in the year A.D. 802,701, when he encounters a class-ridden battle between the decadent Eloi and the primitive Morlocks. The Morlocks are nocturnal creatures who live underground and surface during the night, only to prey on the defenseless Eloi. The Eloi, once living comfortably as the ruling race, have degenerated into a simple group of beings that live life effortlessly and without substance. The time traveler describes his interactions with the Morlocks and the Eloi in a thought-provoking manner, creating a highly enjoyable novel.
The Time Machine suggests many controversial ideas such as the extreme degeneration of the human race. Not only is it interesting to learn Wells' theories, but his writing caused one to consider the possibilities of evolution. The open ending to the book also leaves a story for the mind to explore.


When The Sleeper Wakes
By: H.G. Wells
Written in the final years of the 19th century by an acknowledged scientific visionary, this book is stunning for its portrayal not just of 'modern techological' creations. First and foremost, this book hints at the dramatic societal changes that followed in the 20th century. Most readers will remember Wells' use of the airplane, television, radar, etc. in this novel written in the late 1890s. The conceptualization of these technological wonders for a 19th century inhabitant is remarkable, no doubt. True astonishment, however, arises from Wells' portrayal of societal conflict caused by the awakening of the 'Sleeper'. We now know, from our vantage point late in the 20th century, that this century will be remembered for pandemic social change, when a majority of mankind (in the many communist, nationalist, and independence movements) moved to a different drumbeat. In the course of these brief one-hundred years, masses have risen and elites fallen in societies on virtually all the continents. We know that redistributions of wealth and the power of mass education have been the historical catalysts. Wells uses the 'sleeper' as the agent of change in this wonderfully prophetic novel


Beyond the Wall of Sleep
By: H.P. Lovecraft
Of all the writers of the horror genre, none can come close to H.P. Lovecraft. This collection of tales is guaranteed to send more than a tingle down your spine. They might cause you to turn on a light before you go to bed.
Do you know what lies Beyond The Walls Of Sleep?Do you want to know?
Here are some of the best tales of horror for your reading pleasure. Just remember what I said about the light. Oh, you might also want to cover your ears. You don't want to know why Erich Zann played so madly all through the night.


The Music of Eric Zann
By: H.P. Lovecraft
Of all the writers of the horror genre, none can come close to H.P. Lovecraft. This collection of tales is guaranteed to send more than a tingle down your spine. They might cause you to turn on a light before you go to bed.
Do you know what lies Beyond The Walls Of Sleep?Do you want to know?
Here are some of the best tales of horror for your reading pleasure. Just remember what I said about the light. Oh, you might also want to cover your ears. You don't want to know why Erich Zann played so madly all through the night.


The Federalist Papers
By: Hamilton, Jay and Madison
The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution. The primary authors were Alexander Hamilton and James Madison with help from John Jay. In total, the Federalist Papers contains 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America. All of the essays were signed 'PUBLIUS' and the actual authors of some are under dispute, but the general consensus is that Hamilton wrote 52, Madison wrote 28 and Jay contributed the remaining 5. The Federalist Papers remain today as an excellent reference for historians and constitutional scholars.


Andersen's Fairy Tales
By: Hans Christiabn Andersen
Here are the stories that began my adventures in reading. They are still entertaining today for adults and children alike. Relive and remember these wonderful tales and fables from your childhood, or introduce them to a child you love.


The Tinder Box and Other Stories
By: Hans Christian Andersen
I remember reading The Tinder Box as a child, as well as the rest of these stories. They still delight both adult and child.


Merton Of The Movies
By: Harry Leon Wilson
Merton of the Movies follows its title character from his hometown in Illinois, where he spends all his time watching the moving pictures, to his quest for being in them. This takes him to early Hollywood where he intends to work hard and make great sacrifices to be a star. Like the legions of hopefuls who still arrive in this town every day, he has a lot to learn.


Walden and Civil Disobedience
By: Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days living along beside Walden Pond near Concord Massachusetts. This is the essay of that time, but it is also this philosophers view of the world. Worth reading in any generation.Civil Disobedience is a reminder that there are ways to protest, and reasons for doing so, that do not include violence. Violent disobedience is never civil.


Daisy Miller
By: Henry James
The title character is a young American woman traveling in Europe with her mother. There she is courted by Frederick Forsyth Winterbourne, an American living abroad. In her innocence, Daisy is compromised by her friendship with an Italian man. Her behavior shocks Winterbourne and the other Americans living in Italy, and they shun her. Only after she dies does Winterbourne recognize that her actions reflected her spontaneous, genuine, and unaffected nature and that his suspicions of her were unwarranted. Like others of James's works, Daisy Miller uses the contrast between American innocence and European sophistication as a powerful tool with which to examine social conventions.


Pandora
By: Henry James
Meet Count Otto Vogelstein an intelligent young German. And meet Pandora Day, a lovely, young, strong young American. Both are on a voyage from Southampton. Both are on their own voyages to discovery and the future. But what does that future hold for each, and how are they intertwined? Or are tehy?


Some Short Stories
By: Henry James
This collection of some of Henry James short stories includes such greats as Booksmith, The Real Thing and others. Admittedly sometimes the reading gets a little slow in The Real Thing but don't take that so much as a warning as an invitation to explore.


The Turn Of The Screw
By: Henry James
The Turn Of The Screw is a complex exploration of human psychology and the nature of perception. The central question is, are the heroine's perceptions 'real' or the product of hysterical imagination? James does not tell us definitively, but leaves us to ponder which we believe to be true - and whether there's ever a clear difference. The Victorian language only adds to the atmosphere of a tale redolent with Freudian possibility. The book must have been quite shocking to its initial audience, and within this context, it still is a shocker. Read this book and focus on the psychological aspects, and you'll likely have a good time.


Washington Square
By: Henry James
An excellent, short novel that probes the traditionally most important events of a woman's life -- her marriage opportunities. James portrays a woman who is as much the victim in society of her lack of beauty as she is of the two men in her life: a father who is at best negligent and often overtly cruel and a fortune-hunter who is breathtaking to behold but morally empty. James has the courage to demonstrate through Dr. Sloper's character (the father) the hardness and even abusiveness with which men treated women who lacked beauty or great wit. And he added a swain who pretended to treat the heroine in a finer manner, but who was merely after her money. Catherine Sloper learns her lessons slowly but seemingly well. Written beautifully, James has a small masterpiece of social commentary here, with a fair and objective presentation of one woman's life. Delightful to read, but sad that the heroine must cease to search for happiness merely because men have taught her not to trust their protestations of love.


Quo Vadis
By: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Historical novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in Polish under its Latin title in 1896. The title means 'where are you going?' and alludes to a New Testament verse (John 13:36). The popular novel was widely translated. Set in ancient Rome during the reign of the emperor Nero, Quo Vadis? tells the story of the love that develops between a young Christian woman and a Roman officer who, after meeting her fellow Christians, converts to her religion. Underlying their relationship is the contrast between the worldly opulence of the Roman aristocracy and the poverty, simplicity, and spiritual power of the Christians. The novel has as a subtext the persecution and political subjugation of Poland by Russia.


Human Nature
By: Herbert N. Casson
I would say that it is a book written with a very good common sense approach to the subject of human nature, it is very clear and simple, and easy to understand. I think that the ideas in this book are as valuable to day as they were when it was written. And I liked it so much that I typed it for my friends.
Courtesy: Antonio
Antonio sent me a copy of the book after he typed it. Many thanks!


Moby Dick
By: Herman Melville
The novel is a quasi-allegorical epic tragedy, if that makes much sense to those who haven't read it yet, and you must come to it ready to put yourself through such a monumental task as grappling with it. Ahab is the great madman pursuing his blasphemous goal, Ishmael the gentle searcher caught up in the terror and attractions of that purpose, and Moby himself the great mystery of evil and God and nature, 'the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung'. Hey, I could go on and on about this, about symbols and meaning and fate and evil and God and revenge and madness and hope. But what's the point? There are so many facets to this book, from farce to fate, that it would take me days to cover it all. If you want to read something great, this is what you should take in hand. By the way, the 'message' of MD is extremely important in our day and age, in my opinion. This is not just an empty academic read, but a profound exploration of the meaning of life and the broadest, deepest questions of moral and spiritual purpose.


The Age of Invention
By: Holland Thompson
This volume is not intended to be a complete record of inventive genius and mechanical progress in the United States. A bare catalogue of notable American inventions in the nineteenth century alone could not be compressed into these pages. Nor is it any part of the purpose of this book to trespass on the ground of the many mechanical works and encyclopedias which give technical descriptions and explain in detail the principle of every invention. All this book seeks to do is to outline the personalities of some of the outstanding American inventors and indicate the significance of their achievements.


The Iliad of Homer
By: Homer
Taking place in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, the ILIAD opens with the anger of Achilles at the great king Agamemnon for taking away his favorite concubine (a spoil of war). Each man's pride is too much: Agamemnon refuses to give back the girl and Achilles refuses to continue fighting. Since Achilles is the Greeks' greatest warrior, the fortunes of the Trojans markedly improve while he famously sulks in his tent. But the Greeks fight on, and such heroes as Diomedes, Aias (Ajax) and Odysseus continue the fight to sack Troy as return the queen Helen to her husband Menelaos, King of Argos.

Sualeh Fatehi is a software engineer who contributed this book to ESSPC. He has used PDA's for many years and enjoys eBooks. Thanks to him for his work.


The Odyssey of Homer
By: Homer
The epic continues with the Odyssey of Homer. Here we meet Odysseus who was reluctant to leave his serene home island of Ithaca. He did not want to leave behind a new born son and his beautiful wife, Penelope, whom he both adored with all his heart. After some convincing Odysseus is off to the far away city of Troy. He has no idea of what is about to come of him in the next twenty years....

Sualeh Fatehi is a software engineer who contributed this book to ESSPC. He has used PDA's for many years and enjoys eBooks. Thanks to him for his work.


Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates
By: Howard Pyle
Famed illustrator Howard Pyle wrote this delightful book of fact and fiction about the life and times of famous pirates, such as Captain Kidd and Blackbeard. Though not illustrated this is still a great read.


Men of Iron
By: Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates is the most downloaded eBook at this site! There is no better way to honor that fact than to present to you Men of Iron, a wonderful romp through the days of knights in shining armor. Here meet Young Myles Falworth who wins a reputation for courage and independence while still in training at the castle of the great Earl of Mackworth. But one day he discovers that his blind father had been condemned for treason and is still being hunted by a powerful enemy who is close to the King. To challenge the King's champion means certain death. Does he dare to risk ordeal by battle to win back his family's honor? Download this eBook and find out.


Otto of the Silver Hand
By: Howard Pyle
This book is as captivating and beautiful as a knight in shining armor tale can be. It's a tale of love, courage, good and evil. The love begins between husband and wife with as much fervor and honesty. Conrad, the baron of the Castle Drakenhausen whose love is so great for the Baroness Matilda, takes their son Otto to the 'White Cross on the Hill' soon after his birth. There his good, holy and wise Uncle Otto (Abbot Otto) resides. You see, Baroness Matilda has died at Otto's birth and Baron Conrad knows his cold castle and his bitter feudal world are not suited for the raising of his child. Young Otto developes a pure, simple and docile attitude in the 12 years he lives at the monastery. His father comes to reclaim him at this point and here the story begins to unfold.
This is so beautifully written! It's wonderfully suspenceful (how Otto escapes from his cold, dark dungeon when he is near death; how his father gives his life in the end for that of his son and the 'faithful few' who remained with him till the bitter end.
The spirit of great love from a man to his wife, a father to his son was refreshing. The story was indeed uplifting to the mind, heart and soul. What better tale to tell...to teach love in its sometimes harsh reality!! Death because of love!!
This book is too beautiful to miss!!


Robin Hood
By: Howard Pyle
You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you. Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good, sober folks of real history so frisk and caper in gay colors and motley that you would not know them but for the names tagged to them. Here is a stout, lusty fellow with a quick temper, yet none so ill for all that, who goes by the name of Henry II. Here is a fair, gentle lady before whom all the others bow and call her Queen Eleanor. Here is a fat rogue of a fellow, dressed up in rich robes of a clerical kind, that all the good folk call my Lord Bishop of Hereford. Here is a certain fellow with a sour temper and a grim look-- the worshipful, the Sheriff of Nottingham. And here, above all, is a great, tall, merry fellow that roams the greenwood and joins in homely sports, and sits beside the Sheriff at merry feast, which same beareth the name of the proudest of the Plantagenets--Richard of the Lion's Heart. Beside these are a whole host of knights, priests, nobles, burghers, yeomen, pages, ladies, lasses, landlords, beggars, peddlers, and what not, all living the merriest of merry lives, and all bound by nothing but a few odd strands of certain old ballads (snipped and clipped and tied together again in a score of knots) which draw these jocund fellows here and there, singing as they go.


The Captives
By: Hugh Walpole
'I confess that I do not see why the very existence of an invisible world may not in part depend on the personal response which any of us may make to the religious appeal. God Himself, in short, may draw vital strength and increase of very being from our fidelity. For my own part I do not know what the sweat and blood and tragedy of this life mean, if they mean anything short of this. If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight--as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithlessness, are needed to redeem; and first of all to redeem our own hearts from atheisms and fears . . .'


Seeds of Light
By: Ira Hughes
A remarkable story of racism and enlightenment in the American South. This story takes place in the turbulent 1960s in Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas. You won't put it down!


The Feeling of Power
By: Isaac Asimov
Meet Myron Aub, a lowly technician who discovers the lost art of Graphitics. At least that's what he calls it. In the early 21st. century we still call it arithmetic. Aub's world is controlled by computers and there is a continual war. But Aub's discovery may change all that.
This short story by Isaac Asimov foretells the Pocket PC and the fear that many have had about the possibility that with computers doing everything human?s will become so dependent upon them that they will lose the basics of math, and who knows what more.
With the court decision marking the sharp differentiation between printed books and eBooks I publish this story as a test case, as well as the fact that I believe it is a must read.
Following this story is the text of the court judgement.
Enjoy it while you can.

In the year 2000 and the beginning of 2001, Rosetta Books contracted with several authors to publish certain of their works - including The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice by William Styron; Slaughterhouse- Five, Breakfast of Champions, The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut; and Promised Land by Robert B. Parker - in digital format over the internet. (Def. Ex. 21- 23; http:// www. rosettabooks. com/ pages/ about_ us. html.) On February 26, 2001 Rosetta Books launched its ebook business, offering those titles and others for sale in digital format. (Cantos Aff. ? 2, Ex. A; http:// www. rosettabooks. com). The next day, Random House filed this complaint accusing Rosetta Books of committing copyright infringement and tortiously interfering with the contracts Random House had with Messrs. Parker, Styron and Vonnegut by selling its ebooks. It simultaneously moved for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Rosetta from infringing plaintiff's copyrights.


The Complete Angler
By: Izaak Walton
One of the most popular works of the seventeenth century, The Complete Angler (1653) is an irresistible blend of practical advice on fishing, natural history, poetry, fabulous antiquity and song. Walton, nostalgic Royalist and friend of bishops, presents the modest angler's life as equal to the sport of kings.
But the book goes far beyond baiting a hook or landing a fighting trout. It is a paean to nature, to timeless days when nothing intrudes into life save for the electric twitch of a trout taking a fly. After completing this book the reader will not only be educated but relaxed and reminded of the simple joys of life.
Even if you are not interested in fishing this book is still a great joy.


Peter Pan
By: J.M. Barrie
One night, Wendy Darling and her two younger brothers are in the nursery. Suddenly, a wispy figure flies in through the window -- it is Peter Pan. Peter spins a tale about his home, Never Never Land, a far-away world, filled with pirates, fairies, and mermaids. Intrigued and excited, the children join Peter and his tribe of Lost Boys and are off to Never Never Land. They begin an adventure that soon brings them face to face with Peter's arch-enemy, the evil Captain Hook. Hook plots to kill Peter and he captures Wendy. Will the Darling children be able to return to their home?


Adventure
By: Jack London
Jack London (1876-1916), at his peak, was the highest paid and the most popular of all living writers. Because of financial difficulties, he was largely self educated past grammar school. A large part of his knowledge was obtained from the Oakland Public Library.
London draws heavily on his life experiences in his writing. He spent time in the Klondike during the Gold Rush and at various times was an oyster pirate, a seaman, a sealer, and a hobo.
His first work was published in 1898. From there he went on to write such American classics as 'Call of the Wild', 'Sea Wolf', and 'White Fang'. Quiet Vision has published more than 20 of his works and is working to publish all his fiction.
The subject of Jack London's alleged racism comes up from time to time.But he lived in a racist time, and accepted contemporary views uncritically, neither promoting nor opposing them. One can easily assemble evidence either way. It is improbable that a real racist could have written stories showing empathy for the downtrodden in the way that London does in 'The Chinago,' 'Koolau the Leper,' and 'The Mexican.'
This being said, if one wanted to make Jack London out to be a racist, 'Adventure' would certainly be a good place to start. There are passages in it that are so dreadful that you don't know whether to laugh or to cry. One of the less offensive:
''Jump!' he shouted fiercely at the end, his will penetrating the low intelligence of the black with dynamic force that made him jump to the task of brushing the loathsome swarms of flies away.'
This may make it all that much more important to read what London has written.


Martin Eden
By: Jack London
Semiautobiographical novel by Jack London, published in 1909. The title character becomes a writer, hoping to acquire the respectability sought by his society-girl sweetheart. She spurns him, however, when his writing is rejected by several magazines and when he is falsely accused of being a socialist. She tries to win him back after he achieves fame, but Eden realizes her love is false. Financially successful and robbed of connection to his own class, aware that his quest for bourgeois respectability was hollow, Eden travels to the South Seas.


The Call of the Wild
By: Jack London
Jack London's Call of the Wild is a entertaining and fairly accurate depiction of the hostile environment that was the Yukon during the Gold Rush. London's vivid descriptions of the characters and environment are enough to hold the reader's interest until the storyline takes off. London states 'His eyes turned blood-shot and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend.' This shows how Buck was already starting to revert to his race's old ways. The story follows Buck, a content farm-dog, to the Yukon. Once there, the book shows him change into a savage, primitive beast. Overall, The Call of the Wild is a gripping tale of reverting to savagery, set in a harsh climate at time.


The Cruise of the Snark
By: Jack London
In this classic by a master adventure storyteller, Jack London writes of a real adventure--his own voyage across the Pacific in the Snark. Knowing little about navigation, he set out from San Francisco with his wife and two crew in a schooner whose defects included a tendency to leak and a refusal to face up to the wind.


The Human Drift
By: Jack London
Jack London tells stories in this book that are both fiction and non fiction. As there are drifts in the seas of the world, as he explains in the first story, there are also drifts in humanity. And as we drift we perceive changes in the world. If we look closely we will perceive changes in our selves. Here, then, are stories of the Human Drift, by Jack London.


The Jacket - Star-Rover
By: Jack London
For those of you who like London's ususal stuff (and those that don't) this book is NOT typical Jack London. It concerns the life of a prisoner around the turn of the century who spent much of his time in solitary confinement and how he dealt with the psychological strain of the experience. One coping mechanism was astral projection where he 'left the prison' in his mind. Quite an interesting tale. Synopsis by Terry A. Austin


The Night Born
By: Jack London
'It was in 1898 that I made that trip east over the Rockies, angling across to the Great Up North there the Rockies are something more than a back-bone. It is an unknown land. Great stretches of it have never been explored. There are big valleys there where the white man has never set foot, and Indian tribes as primitive as ten thousand years ... almost, for they have had some contact with the whites. Parties of them come out once in a while to trade, and that is all. I was coming up a stream the dogs were packing on their backs, and were sore-footed and played out; while I was looking for any bunch of Indians to get sleds and drivers from and go on with the first snow. And then I lifted a smoke, and heard the barking of the dogs--Indian dogs--and came into camp. There must have been five hundred of them, proper Indians at that, and I could see by the jerking-frames that the fall hunting had been good.
And then I met her--Lucy. That was her name. She was nut-brown. I have called her a girl. But she was not. She was a woman, a nut-brown woman, an Amazon, a full-blooded, full-bodied woman, and royal ripe. And her eyes were blue. That's what took me off my feet--her eyes--blue, not China blue, but deep blue, like the sea and sky all melted into one, and very wise. More than that, they had laughter in them--warm laughter, sun-warm and human, very human, and . . . shall I say feminine? And she quoted to me those very words of Thoreau --the ones about the day-born gods and the night-born.'


The Valley Of The Moon
By: Jack London
Against a backdrop of the deadly struggles of organized labor in turn-of-the-century California, Jack London created an odyssey of two young lovers who pursue their dream of returning to the roots of their American pioneer ancestors. This book was originally written as a serial for Cosmopolitan magazine, and is reprinted in sections representing each issue. It is wonderfully illustrated by Howard Christy. Despite the xenophobia (quite common in the era), the book presents two compelling protagonists, and follows them in a struggle against union-busting bosses, poverty, and nature. The pages fly by.


The Deerslayer
By: James Fenimore Cooper
The Deerslayer (1841) is the last of the Leatherstocking Tales, but the first in the development of the hero Natty Bumppo. This novel marks Cooper's return to historical romance after more than a decade given largely to social and political commentary. This edition provides the authoritative text of the novel and prefaces to The Deerslayer (1841 and 1850) and to the Leatherstocking Tales
'The Deerslayer' is, chronologically, the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, although the last to be written. It takes place in the early 1740s on the Lake Glimmerglass. Natty Bumppo, called Deerslayer, and his friend Hurry Harry March go to Tom Hutter's 'Castle,' which is a house built on stilts on a shoal in the middle of the lake, and it is practically impregnable. March intends to get Tom's daughter Judith to marry him. More love is in the air, for Deerslayer plans to meet Chingachgook at a point on the lake in a few days in order to help him rescue his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, who is a prisoner of the Hurons.
War breaks out, Tom and Harry are captured by Hurons, and the untested Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them. That sets up the plot, and there follows many twists and turns, ending with a very haunting conclusion.


Dubliners
By: James Joyce
In his book Dubliners, James Joyce allows us to enter into the very soul of various characters that surface throughout the book. His masterful descriptions invite us to see life through their eyes and experience their feelings of discontent, frustration, jealousy, longing, pride. It gives us the ability to look outside ourselves and view the suffering of those around us. The book is divided into fifteen mini stories. Each one is distinct and each one allows us to glimpse another soul. We peer into the mind of young boy who has had his first brush with death when an elderly friend dies. We see a young man go in search of a gift to bring the girl that has caught his heart. We gaze into the frustrations of a man who feels trapped in his job and finds only momentary solace in his alcohol. And finally we view a wife who hears a song that brings back memories of a youth time lover she had who had died and cries as her husband wonders if he might ever have that same level of lover for her as did that young man years ago. Each of these characters teaches us something about ourselves. We laugh at the naivety of the young characters depicted at the beginning of the book and realize that we once had their innocence. We pity the other characters because of their entrapped existence. We mourn for their hopelessness and wish we could do something to rescue them from their plight. We wonder how they could be so filled with pride, anger, and misery and then are led to wonder if we suffer from similar maladies.
Courtesy: Joey Price


James Nasmyth Engineer, An Autobiography
By: James Nasmyth
James Nasmyth was an engineer extraordinary. His inventions will astound you, from the steam hammer to chilled cast iron shot, which revolutionized weaponry. Nasmyth did not stop there, but was a true renaissance man, interested in anything and everything.


Irish Fairy Tales
By: James Stephens
Stephens presents a voice, a carefully chosen, well modulated voice, to present the web of tales which comprise the Irish tradition. As in Crock of Gold, he does this with beautiful natural imagery, and references to the bays and rivers and isles of Ireland. Moreover, unlike much of literature considered adolescent fare,he encompasses adult virtues and vices including lust, envy and pride. This book is written with a compelling sense of humor, aimed not at the cute, but at the failings which each of us possess. it is a book worthy of reading by a person of any age.


Emma
By: Jane Austen
'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like,' Jane Austen wrote of Emma, vastly underestimating her readers' good taste. The trick of adapting Emma is to recapture Austen's delicate balance, which allows us to see why the heroine still has friends and social influence, despite being the worst matchmaker and busybody in the village of Highbury.


Lady Susan
By: Jane Austen
Jane Austen loves scandal and Lady Susan is one of the best. In the first few pages we are introduced to a mother who flirts with a spoken-for man to detach him from his engagement so he'll be available to marry her daughter, all the while having her eye on a married man. Also featuring a hostile sister-in-law, a clueless brother, and an equally mischievous confidante named Alicia, the whole short novel is full of scheming, match-making, and more of Austen's usual forte, delicious gossip. This book is composed of fourty letters and a conclusion. Though it may be confusing at times it makes keeping all the characters straight a challenge.


Persuasion
By: Jane Austen
Persuasion is a simply structured novel, for its plot is concerned only with bringing Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth together. A major theme of the novel is Austen's examination of pride and vanity - pride in one's social position and vanity of one's personal appearance. The idea of persuadability is tied up with another major concern of the novel - the right quality of mind. As the novel develops, Austen strives to achieve a right balance between contrasting opposites.


Pride and Prejudice
By: Jane Austen
Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but she is far from it. However if she provoked she is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp -- but always polite -- 18th century wit. You will spend the whole book absolutely fixated on the critical question: will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hook up? This book is riveting, it's fun, it's hysterical (wait for the rewarding confrontation between Lady Catherine deBourgh and Elizabeth...it's not only a battle of tongues, but a great clash of the 'refined' yet uneducated upper classes, and the middle classes of Regentry England.


Sense and Sensibility
By: Jane Austen
The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she 'loves him tenderly,' she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:
Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!
Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure.


Three Men In A Boat
By: Jerome K. Jerome
A humorous account of three young Englishmen and a summer trip up the River Thames. There is no adequate way to describe this book, except to say that it is the funniest book ever written. Proof that Victorians did indeed have a sense of humor.
This eBook was submitted by Kate Halleron. Kate is an aspiring writer and lover of fine literature. She recently moved to Oregon, and had to rent a truck just to move all her books. And that was just the ones she intends to read again someday.


The Anti-Slavery Crusade
By: Jesse Macy
The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln marks the beginning of the end of a long chapter in human history. Among the earliest forms of private property was the ownership of slaves. Slavery as an institution had persisted throughout the ages, always under protest, always provoking opposition, insurrection, social and civil war, and ever bearing within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Among the historic powers of the world the United States was the last to uphold slavery, and when, a few years after Lincoln's proclamation, Brazil emancipated her slaves, property in man as a legally recognized institution came to an end in all civilized countries.
Emancipation in the United States marked the conclusion of a century of continuous debate, in which the entire history of western civilization was traversed. The literature of American slavery is, indeed, a summary of the literature of the world on the subject. The Bible was made a standard text-book both for and against slavery. Hebrew and Christian experiences were exploited in the interest of the contending parties in this crucial controversy. Churches of the same name and order were divided among themselves and became half pro-slavery and half anti-slavery.


Life Of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum
By: Joel Benton
There is no proof that Phineas Taylor Barnum ever said 'there's a sucker born every minute.' He did, however, say that 'every crowd has a silver lining,' and acknowledged that 'the public is wiser than many imagine.'
In his 80 years, Barnum gave the wise public of the 19th century shameless hucksterism, peerless spectacle, and everything in between -- enough entertainment to earn the title 'master showman' a dozen times over. In choosing Barnum as one of the 100 most important people of the millenium, Life magazine recently dubbed him 'the patron saint of promoters.'
Here is the story of the greatest showman ever, P.T. Barnum.


Heidi
By: Johanna Spyri
This book is a true classic. It's easy and fun to read for children as well as for adults. The way Heidi finds her happiness is a lesson in faith and the power of prayer without being preachy in any way. Having the blues? Curl up on the couch with this book and you'll feel better soon.
This book is about a little girl named Heidi who is sent to live with a rich family in a city. Heidi befriends her adopted sister, Clara, who is confinded to a wheel chair. But, Heidi misses her grandfatherand her mountain home.

This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


Pilgrim's Progress
By: John Bunyan
One of the best-selling books of all time, The Pilgrim's Progress holds a unique place in the history of English literature. Bunyan captures the speech of ordinary people as accurately as he depicts their behavior and appearance and as firmly as he realizes their inner emotional and spiritual life. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Synopsis The Pilgrim's Progress has been printed, read, and translated more often than any book other than the Bible. People of all ages have found delight in the simple, earnest story of Christian, the Pilgrim, and his life-changing, life-affirming adventures.


Fanny Hill
By: John Cleland
The memoirs of a lady of pleasure. 'Fanny Hill has been frequently suppressed since its initial publication in 1749. This story of a prostitute is known both for its frank sexual descriptions and its parodies of contemporary literature... The U.S. Supreme Court finally cleared it from obscenity charges in 1966. ' Quote Courtesy Banned Books On Line


The Skin Game
By: John Galsworthy
A Tragi-Comedy in three acts. A rich family, the Hillcrests, is fighting against the speculator, Hornblower, who sends away poor farmers to build factories on their lands. When Mrs. Hillcrest finds out that Chloe Hornblower was a prostitute, she uses this secret to blackmail the speculator and force him to stop his business.


The Discovery of The Source of the Nile
By: John Hanning Speke
In 1858 the author, Speake, discovered Lake Victoria. In this journal he recounts his adventure, discusses the natural history and tells of his daily living. This is a little bit of everything wrapped up into an adventure tale.


A Journey in Other Worlds
By: John Jacob Astor
A Journey In Other Worlds is the tale of travel to the other planets in our solar system. Even more remarkable than the story is the author, John Jacob Astor.
Colonel John Jacob Astor was an American financier who, among other things developed several mechanical devices including a bicycle brake (1898), helped to develop the turbine engine, and invented a pneumatic road-improver.
In 1912 he and his wife Mary sailed on the Titanic. Mary, his wife, survived but Astor went down with the ship. His body was found three days later.


The Aran Islands
By: John M. Synge
The geography of the Aran Islands is very simple, yet it may need a word to itself. There are three islands: Aranmor, the north island, about nine miles long; Inishmaan, the middle island, about three miles and a half across, and nearly round in form; and the south island, Inishere—in Irish, east island,—like the middle island but slightly smaller. They lie about thirty miles from Galway, up the centre of the bay, but they are not far from the cliffs of County Clare, on the south, or the corner of Connemara on the north.
     Kilronan, the principal village on Aranmor, has been so much changed by the fishing industry, developed there by the Congested Districts Board, that it has now very little to distinguish it from any fishing village on the west coast of Ireland. The other islands are more primitive, but even on them many changes are being made, that it was not worth while to deal with in the text.
     In the pages that follow I have given a direct account of my life on the islands, and of what I met with among them, inventing nothing, and changing nothing that is essential. As far as possible, however, I have disguised the identity of the people I speak of, by making changes in their names, and in the letters I quote, and by altering some local and family relationships. I have had nothing to say about them that was not wholly in their favour, but I have made this disguise to keep them from ever feeling that a too direct use had been made of their kindness, and friendship, for which I am more grateful than it is easy to say.


Andersonville
By: John McElroy
Andersonville tells the story of the horror prisoners of war experienced in the Andersonville prison during the American Civil War. Prisoners of War during the Civil War were never intended to be held for the duration. At the beginning, both the Confederacy and the Union participated in a system of prisoner exchange, which set the guidelines for establishing prisons as 'holding pins.' The prisoners were well fed and able to support themselves. Andersonville and Johnson Island are two notorious prisons of the Civil War. They were survivable prisons until politics interfered with the operation of the prisoner exchange and forced each side to retain their prisoners of war. Both Johnson Island and Andersonville suffered from similar problems such as mal-nutrition and overcrowding. Andersonville was a prison of a makeshift quality that probably contributed to its notoriety. Life within Andersonville was full of suffering and death, and it resulted in the complete breakdown of humanity. Johnson Island military prison was constructed in a manner more befitting of a prison. Life within Johnson Island was difficult, but the suffering did not result in the complete devolution of society. Comparing the facilities and the life of the prisoners of Andersonville and Johnson Island, prison life in Andersonville was far worse than life in Johnson Island. The Confederacy could not handle the number of prisoners that they had captured, and these prisoners struggled for their lives as the Confederate war effort became incapable of sustaining itself and it's soldiers. The prisoners in Union prison ate better food and lived in provided shelters. While in Andersonville soldiers did not even receive enough food to live, and they also were not provided with supplies. However, it is not possible to ignore the fact that on both sides prisoners suffered.


Paradise Lost
By: John Milton
Long regarded as one of the most powerful and influential poems in the English language, Paradise Lost still inspires intense debate about whether it manages 'to justify the ways of God to men' or exposes the cruelty of Christianity or the Christian God.
Paradise Lost conjures up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and puts a naked Adam and Eve at the very center of its story.


The Railroad Builders
By: John Moody
Of the major modes of transportation in America in the early 1800s the railroad was the least appreciated and at times the most dangerous. But no other means of transportation could unite this vast land into one nation. The building of the railroads in America was an undertaking which was farught with danger, both from nature and from man. In fact the greatest threat to the railroads was politicians protecting their own interests. And that includes those who were in favor of the railroads. Here then is the story of the building of the American railroads.


The King of the Golden River
By: John Ruskin
This is a wonderful fable of good and evil. It is a short work, but an excellent introduction to John Ruskin.


Gullivers Travels
By: Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift, - satirist, churchman, reformer, - is perhaps one of the greatest satirists of all time. 'Gulliver's Travels', his masterpiece, demonstrates the full breadth of his ingenious and far-sighted critique of almost the entire social order of his time, which included the Enlightenment belief in progress, reason and science, as well as the system of government. Critics have gone so far as to interpret him as a libertarian, an anarchist, even a nihilist, as he tended to see how even the highest ideals of civilisation, its most august institutions, were actually the products of barabarism. Like many men of his generation, including Alexander Pope, Swift believed in the 'retournons du nature', though nature was not seen as equivalent to the unchaining of passion and the blind gratification of appetite, but as something that was achieved through effort and discipline. The humour is bawdy and sometimes coarse, no less than that of Rabelais, such as the scene in Lilliput in which the giant Gulliver puts out the fire in the queen's tiny palace by urinating on it. Altogether, the book is an amusing and marvellous satire. Religion, however, is the one topic that Swift, being an ecclesiastic, refrains from subjecting to criticism.

This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Guns Of Bull Run
By: Joseph A. Altsheler
The Guns Of Bull Run tells the story of the events leading up to the begining of the American Civil War. It opens with a simple letter and after it is read the reader, Dr. Russell says, 'I have just received a letter from an old friend in Charleston and he tells me that on the twentieth, three days ago, the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union. He also sends me copies of two of the Charleston newspapers of the day following. In both of these papers all despatches from the other states are put under the head, 'Foreign News.' With the Abolitionists of New England pouring abuse upon all who do not agree with them, and the hot heads of South Carolina rushing into violence, God alone knows what will happen to this distracted country that all of us love so well.'
And so begins this engrosing tale.


The Depot Master
By: Joseph C. Lincoln
'Well, then, I'm goin' to trust you with a secret. I'm goin' to tell you the whole business about that robbin'. It's all mixed up with football and millionaires and things--and it's a dead secret, the truth of it. So when I tell you it mustn't go no further.' So begins this tale of intrigue, but can you keep the secret?


Nostromo
By: Joseph Conrad
Nostromo contains some of the most vividly realized characterization, plot, and sensory detail of any novel ever written in the English language, period. While the 'eponymous' character remains purposefully enigmatic, the other inhabitants of Costaguena are stereoscopically fleshed out. We are on intimate terms with the Goulds. We know Decoud's innermost thoughts. It's true that Decoud is the central character of this novel. His isolation and mental defragmentation is Conrad's arguement for and refuation of existentialism. We are all islands, yet no man is in island. Take your pick. This is a very large piece of fiction. Do not approch it as you would some best seller. It's not going to entertain you on every page. What it will do is reward you in riches that can never come cheaply. Yet it is not like Finnegan's Wake, where you have to have your Boedekker's guide to see you along your journey. It's also a great adventure story, with a larger than life hero. If I could suggest one book to represent the most finely crafted novel of its era, this would be it.
Courtesy: Bruce Kendall


20000 Leagues Under The Seas
By: Jules Verne
Meet Captain Nemo as he rescues shipwrecked survivors and takes them on the most fantastic journey under the sea. A classic tale that never grows old.
Note that this is the original title, somehow the word 'seas' got reduced to 'sea' in later publications.


A Journey To The Center Of The Earth
By: Jules Verne
Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth is definitely a must read for science fiction aficionados and classic fiction lovers alike. Verne's sense of humor and incredible imagination make for a mostly credible, and quite enjoyable tale of a young man who accompanies his uncle on the journey of a lifetime. For the time in which it was written, it was groundbreaking in citing evolution. Darwin had only published his Origin of the Species 7 years prior to this novel's publication 1867. Verne embraces the theories presented in Origin of the Species, as well as drawing in other discoveries made in scientific circles of the time that support such theories. Verne also takes care to describe and explain many of the other scientific theories and ideas of the age presented in the book in such a way that he ensured Journey to the Center of the Earth will remain a classic for years to come. A wonderful work definitely worth a read. Note: There is some question regarding the validity of this translation. This translation is probably based on the British newspaper serial. The original French translation has the professor named Lidenbrock and not Hardwigg. Other names differ as well. The opening chapter is not the same as the original. Never the less it is a great read.


Five Weeks In A Balloon
By: Jules Verne
The debut novel from Jules Verne, originally published in 1870. This is the work that established his reputation. Originally planned for a children's magazine, this story about traveling in balloons across Africa resonates in Verne's later works and contains all his fondly remembered themes.


Michael Strogoff
By: Jules Verne
Someone must warn the Governor-General of Siberia at once: Ivan Ogareff has allied himself with the fierce and ambitious Feofar-Khan. At their instigation, the Tartar chiefs are pouring their men into Siberia and fomenting rebellion. Should they succeed, the Siberian provinces will be wrestled away from Russian Imperial control. Only one of the Czar's couriers is capable of handling this dangerous mission--Michael Strogoff. Nothing except death will prevent Michael Strogoff from fulfilling his duties.


Off on a Comet
By: Jules Verne
It was Jules Verne who first wrote about what could happen should the earth collide with a comet. This 'comet' is a small, planetiod-like world with atmosphere, land, and ocean. The journey is utterly unbelievable in the light of present knowledge, but Verne is as scientifically correct relative to the knowledge of his day as he could be. Before the travelers are redeposited on the earth in another grazing collision, the comet's eccentric orbit carries them near Venus and Mars, causing them to suffer through terrible extremes of climate. Verne delights in the ability of human ingenuity to overcome obstacles, conflicts, and deprivation as they explore and endure their temporary home. The flights of imagination involved are remarkable and the characterizations are good.Verne also dwells upon behaviors of people trapped on a journey of no return, though it should be treated with a vintage flavor.


The Blockade Runners
By: Jules Verne
James Playfair must run a Federalist blockade of a Charleston, South Carolina harbor in an effort to trade supplies for cotton and to rescue a young girl's father, a Confederate prisoner.


The Mysterious Island
By: Jules Verne
Here is the classic tale of castaways on an island in the South Pacific. Verne is always great reading.


The Survivors Of The Chancellor
By: Jules Verne
Mr. Kazallon thought that booking passage on a cargo ship from Charleston to Liverpool would be a charming way to return to his English homeland. If only he knew! A crazed sea captain, a disaster in the hold, storms, oppressive heat, sharks and starvation are just some of the many travails that will beset both passengers and crew. Will any of them survive the wreck of the Chancellor?
Every disaster that could possibly happen to a ship and crew seems to be heaped upon these unhappy voyagers. Verne brings the characters through the depths of suffering, shame and agony as they struggle to survive each new calamity.


The Underground City
By: Jules Verne
What lies beneath the hills of Scotland and the Aberfoyle mines? This is not Journey to the Center of the Earth but it is dark down there. Make sure that you have plenty of light -and rope! This is classic Jules Verne.


Mystery Stories by Modern English Authors
By: Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
Once again we present a series of tales of suspense and mystery edited by Julian Hawthorne. These stories were written by the best, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Wilkie Collins, Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle and more. so sit back and enjoy this treat.


The Black Death
By: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecke
The thought of the Black Death plague fascinates us all. Here is an account of the Black Death as well as St. Vitus Dance. Very interesting reading, if a little off beat.


Slayer
By: Karen Koehler
They are your friends and neighbors, your teachers and your lovers. They are the beautiful ones, the ones alone, aloof. The ones living on the edges of society. The ones you suspect the least. The spawn of an unholy union between the mortal and the profane, they have taken the art of blood-drinking--and murder--to chilling new heights. And they are about to inherit the earth.
They are slayers. And they have never questioned the creed of their work, nor challenged the words of their elders, until now...until him.
Prepare to hunt the hunter.


Deliberate Lies
By: Karl H. Purnell
This is the compelling story of a young boy growing up in a small town during World War II. Determined to become a Jesuit priest, he finds that living without sin is a difficult task, particularly when young girls attempt to seduce him, he witnesses a murder and is faced with a doctor father who is having an affair. This book chronicles the summer of 1944 when the Allied invasion of Normandy took place.


A Village Stradivarius
By: Kate Douglas Wiggin
The man in the doorway smiled as over the misdemeanour of somebody very dear and lovable, and rising from his chair felt his way to a corner shelf, took down a box, and drew from it a violin swathed in a silk bag. He removed the covering with reverential hands. The tenderness of his face was like that of a young mother dressing or undressing her child. As he fingered the instrument his hands seemed to have become all eyes. They wandered caressingly over the polished surface as if enamoured of the perfect thing that they had created, lingering here and there with rapturous tenderness on some special beauty? the graceful arch of the neck, the melting curves of the cheeks, the delicious swell of the breasts.
When he had satisfied himself for the moment, he took the bow, and lifting the violin under his chin, inclined his head fondly toward it and began to play.


Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm
By: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Rebecca comes from a large, loving, but poor family. In hopes of providing Rebecca with a better future, her parents send her to live with two cold, stern aunts. Although the girl finds the new atmosphere difficult to get accustomed to, the plucky girl ultimately triumphs, wedding the wealthiest man in town.


English to Indonesian Dictionary
By: Ken Mattern
Just what you were waiting for. The first English to Indonesian Dictionary (Engris Indonesia Kamus) for Microsoft Reader!


Wind In the Willows
By: Kenneth Grahame
'Mole thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before--this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again.' Such is the cautious, agreeable Mole's first introduction to the river and the Life Adventurous. Emerging from his home at Mole End one spring, his whole world changes when he hooks up with the good-natured, boat-loving Water Rat, the boastful Toad of Toad Hall, the society- hating Badger who lives in the frightening Wild Wood, and countless other mostly well-meaning creatures.


One More Road To Follow
By: Kenneth Mattern
Here are two stories that I wrote years ago when I was the pastor of a church. At Christmas rather than preach I told stories about the birth of Christ. Stories that children would enjoy as well as their parents. These two are my favorites.
One More Road To Follow tells of three men who have one more job to do for God. I'll leave it for you to guess what it is.
Many of my stories and plays take place at or near the Crippled Camel Inn, the fictitious place where Jesus was born. This is a story that took place there nearly two thousand years ago.
Enjoy!


Beethoven the Man and the Artist
By: Kerst & Krehbiel
Here, taken from his diaries, notes, letters and conversations is the story of Ludwig van Beethoven as told by himself. The edittors, Kerst and Krehbie have woven a fabric from many patches and the result is a whole and not a patchwork. It takes a little getting used to at first but as you read you will get into the flow. You will know Beethoven as you never imagined.


The Ninth Vibration and Other Stories
By: L. Adams Beck
Ms.Beck's short stories deal with paranormal subjects such as life after death, the power of meditation, and ESP. The things she wrote about in her book are now commonly known about but at the time her subject matter was surely not broached too often and if written about, not with any factual basis. Her theories on the paranormal seem to agree with what the experts in the field believe today. Much of her wisdom came from travelling to places like India and China and picking up some of their spiritual beliefs. Most of the stuff we call 'x-file'type occurences have been explained for years in Eastern religions. A highly recommended book.


Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
By: L. Frank Baum
In Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz we see Dorothy and the Wizard reunite, of course, but there are some interesting things going on. The Wizard has become a grand character; Baum has thrown his own nature into him and has made him real to us. The Wizard is now a resourceful, sometimes devious, sardonic, yet compassionate man. The story delves into the bizarre with the Glass City and its vegetable people (and their gruesome demise). The Gargoyles are quite disturbing in their emotionally hollow, wooden world. The Braided Man of Pyramid Mountain provides dry humor (here we see Baum's love of puns). Esentially this is one of the more original works of Baum, with quixotic new characters, and further development of those we already knew. Perhaps Ozma comes into her own in this novel; she is what a queen should be, loyal to her subjects, but not above the law; she is regal, kind yet firm, passionate and loving. Baum has created a fearsome yet beautiful per! sonage in Ozma. This is a great read; recommended non-Ozophiles so that the MGM movie can be challenged, and the true Oz can be appreciated in its majesty of fantasy, humor, horror, and splendor.


The Blue Moon and Other Short Stories
By: Laurence Housman
Here is a little collection of tales by Laurence Housman. From the Blue Moon to The Rat Catchers Daughter you will surely find stories which will delight you and make you shiver at the came time. this is a wonderful collection of primo Housman. Try it, you'll see.


Legends Of Babylon And Egypt
By: Leonard W. King
Leonard W. King does a remarkable job in comparing the legends from the middle east (Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt and Mesopotamia) with the scriptures in the Judaio/Christian Bible. The parallels are remarkable, from the story of the creation through the flood and beyond. As a comparative history this is well worth reading, and just as well worth reading for the educational value.


Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
By: Lewis Carroll
This perennial favorite of young and old alike is back once again. Carrolls stories entertain children but can also give pause to think to adults as well. So welcome back to Wonderland!


Through the Looking-Glass
By: Lewis Carroll
Alice's adventures continue is this tale of fantasy and adventure. Carrolls stories entertain children but can also give pause to think to adults as well. So welcome back to Wonderland! Beware the Jabberwok!


Poe's Tales of Terror
By: London
One of the greatest masters of horror presents three of his greatest tales just for you. Make sure you have plenty of light when you read the Cask of Amontillado.


London's Underworld
By: London's Underworld
The more civilized we become the more complex and serious will be our problems--unless sensible and merciful yet thorough methods are adopted for dealing with the evils. I think that my pages will show that the methods now in use for coping with some of our great evils do not lessen, but considerably increase the evils they seek to cure. -- Thomas Holmes


Don Rodriguez: Chronicles Of Shadow Valley
By: Lord Dunsany
Lord Dunsany's first novel, 'Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley conveys its young disinherited protagonist through a fantasized Spain, gifting him with a Sancho Panza companion, good luck with magicians, and a castle' [The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]. It is a landmark tale for Dunsany, beginning his move from the otherworldly short stories for which his reputation is justly famous to novels, such as the follow-up The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Charwoman's Shadow. L. Sprague de Camp has said: 'Dunsany was the second writer (William Morris in the 1880s being the first) fully to exploit the possibilities of . . . adventurous fantasy laid in imaginary lands, with gods, witches, spirits, and magic, like children?


Little Men
By: Louisa May Alcott
This book follows the adventures of Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer as they try to make their school for boys a happy, comfortable, and stimulating place. Kate Halleron contributed this book.


Little Women
By: Louisa May Alcott
The Marches are a picture of a happy home - with brave and moral Father, who has gone into the army to do what he can for the North's cause, and kind, caring Marmee, who watches over her girls with gentleness and love. Then, there's the little women: sixteen-year-old Meg, who's pretty and mature; rough-and-tumble Jo, determined to become a famous writer; timid Beth, always putting others before herself; and spoiled Amy with her artistic talents. There's also their amiable neighbor, Theodre Laurence (Laurie). Join in on the fun and read all about Amy's trouble at school, Jo's precious book being burned, Meg going to 'Vanity Fair,' Beth's tragedy, and so much more! I highly recommend this book for guys and girls of all ages!
Kate Halleron contributed this book.


Arlyn and Krisdevon
By: Magdvin Cszgarna
I have not had the opportunity to read this book but it is fairly well written. It appears to be a fantasy/romance. As I have the time I will prepare a real synopsis. Note: It does have adult themes.


Break Down
By: Magdvin Cszgarna
In 1994 Magdvin Cszgarna next generation submitted a script to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately, the show already had been canceled, and the script never was produced. The following is the original submission letter followed by the script. Dear Sir, The enclosed script is based on an idea not like any I have seen previously. The premise is that in intergalactic space there are very old and advanced creatures who earn their living towing broken down starships back to their ports of origin. It is about time the Enterprise broke down and was rescued… for a standard, rather expensive fee. One more thing: One of these old, advanced creatures is fascinated by sex, which it has never previously encountered. In order to offer Troi something in her quest for an understanding of men, it offers to make her one for as long as she likes. It may not be as funny as The Trouble with Tribbles but I hope you will find Break Down amusing. The second half, the sexy part, plays gently with all the long implied sexual natures of the main characters. Read aloud it runs 53 minutes. Sincerely, Magdvin Cszgarna Note: This book is available only for Kindle


Hekuba
By: Magdvin Cszgarna
Hekuba talls the story of the Trojan Wars that Homer never told. This is the back story told by the slave and formerly Queen Hekuba. Here is told all the pain and tragedy that befell the Trojans, all because of an infatuated young man. Note: This book is only available for Kindle


The One That Got Away
By: Magdvin Cszgarna
The One That Got Away was written in 1981 and 1982 long before Forrest Gump or The Silence of the Lambs. It was revised slightly in 1989 to reflect the collapse of the Soviet Union. What is interesting about attempts to publish it is not that it was rejected by every major publisher but the nature of the rejection letters it received. Typical of these was one by Bob Guccioni of Penthouse who wrote, 'This is really well written, but it's too weird for me. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.'
     It really does seem to violate a lot of boundaries.


Thurina and Krin
By: Magdvin Cszgarna
This is a nice short story in almost a fairy tale format. It tells of the love of Thurina and Krin and how they promised themselves to each other and no one else. The story takes place in an imaginary place where magic is still possible. Definitely a worth while read.


For the Term of His Natural Life
By: Marcus Clarke
Clark's writings in this book give you an insight into penal life in Australia's early history. His writing style gives you an empathy with the characters,and his descriptons of the Port Arthur site make you feel as if you are there. This is a much better insight into the history and mentality of Australia than any tour/travel planner you could read. It has survived the test of time because it is so accurate in its portrayal of the penal transportation system. It also serves to show that the recent tragedy at Port Arthur Tasmania is minor and almost insignificant if it is compared to what the 'civilized' british empire performed at the same location


The Lodger
By: Marie Belloc Lowndes
This is the story of a mysterious lodger in a rooming house in 19th century London. Shortly after he moves in a series of murders takes place and the landlady links two and two, or does he? An excellent read!


A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court
By: Mark Twain
You might wonder what prompted Mark Twain to sidle from 'straight' fiction into the realm of outright fantasy. Twain transports a Connecticut shop foreman twelve centuries into the past [and 5 000 kilometres!] to Camelot and Arthur's court. Initially confused and dismayed, Hank Morgan's Yankee practicality is quickly aroused and he becomes a major figure among the panopolied knights. With the title of The Boss, his rank equals The King or The Pope with its uniqueness. His elevation doesn't distract him from a more profound impulse, however. Hank's Yankee roots and wide experience evoke an ambition - nothing less than revolution. He wants to sweep away the monarchy and aristocracy and establish an American-style republic in Arthurian Britain.
Mark Twain's scathing criticism of the sham of hereditary monarchy bolstered by an Established Church makes this among his choicest writings. He resents the condition of a Church which 'turned a nation of men into a nation of worms.' A fervent believer in individual freedom, Twain uses Hank to voice his disdain of Britain's royalty. It's no more than might be expected of a man who boasted of but one ancestor - who sat on the jury that executed Charles I. Hank knows revolutions never succeed when implemented from above. Revolution be achieved only when the individual's attitude changes from meek acceptance to self assertion. Hank's method reaches people through clandestine schools and factories, publication of a newspaper and establishment of a telephone system. These new forms of manufacture and communication become the foundation by which Hank expects to abolish the ancient, mis-named, chivalric tradition. Does he change the course of history?
Twain relocates the roots of American democracy from the heart of the frontier yeoman farmer to the brain of the urban industrial worker. Here the man of wide, practical experience shows how to survive compared to those with a formal education. Hank has a simple ambition - establishment of a republic - but utilizes a broad spectrum of ideas to bring it about. He would gladly replace the Established Church of Rome with his own Presbyterian ideals, but is aware that it would be swapping one evil for another. 'Each man should select his own religion, or make one' he contends. Yet, finally, it is this dread force that impairs his desire for change. The final sequence stands as a peer to the biblical Armageddon, Twain wallowing in a frightful bloodletting unseen in any of his other works.
Mark Twain contrasts the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution with the centuries of slavery, serfdom, and poverty that killed countless more people than that spasm of excising of aristocracy. What else spurred him to write of human rights with such passion? He had written of slavery before, but this book is especially wrathful in describing the 'peculiar institution' eliminated in his homeland but a generation before. He forces the king to experience the slave's condition, a form of degradation he would have all aristocrats endure. Every feature of the human condition is examined in this timeless treasure. He challenges you to follow his gaze, considering whether today's societies, monarchical or not, will endure the scrutiny.


A Tramp Abroad
By: Mark Twain
Here is the wonderful story of Mark Twain's tramp across Europe on foot. Because, as he says, the world had never seen the like he would furnish mankind with the spectacle. Here is Twain in all humor and storytelling. Composed of a number of vignettes the story is told. It may make you want to climb the Matterhorn!


Life on the Mississippi
By: Mark Twain
Sam Clemens, Mark Twain's real name, was indeed a riverboat pilot. In Life on the Mississippi he details his life as he worked his way up from apprentice riverboat pilot. Here is Mark Twain in all his humor and yet he educates the reader with his stories as we learn a little history, in this case it is truly his story.


The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
By: Mark Twain
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is really a continuation of the telling of the story of Tom Sawyer, save it is told from the point of view of Huck Finn, who if possible, is from an even lower status than Tom himself. Here is a story of adventure and at the same time raw courage against the reality of slavery in the deep American South as it comes head to head with friendship.


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
By: Mark Twain
Does anybody need an introduction to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? One of the reasons I converted this book was so that I could read it once again. This is the story of a Mississippi boy in the mid 1800's, as he discovers the world for himself. Here there is laughter, danger, boyhood pranks and fun. At the same time this is the telling tale of 'life as it was' in that ear, and some of what Mark Twain tells us is not as we find life today. That's why he tells it to us, in hopes that he, and we, can make a difference.


The Prince and the Pauper
By: Mark Twain
Twain's classic story has been told so many times in television, movie and stage. But it is good to read the original from which all sprang. Join Tom, from Offal Court, as he trades places with a prince. And see the consequences.


The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
By: Mark Twain
Pudd'Nhead Wilson is not Huckleberry Finn, but it is a worthy Twain novel, a strong example of his satiric and ethical writing. Written in 1894, ten years after he published his masterpiece, Twain revisits antebellum small-town Missouri life and this time, his anger at the institution of slavery and the racist folly are front and center in the voice of an omniscient narrator. Twain puts several 19th century conventions of pop entertainment to work in this story: murder, suspense, dramatic irony, verbal irony, babies switched at birth, cross gender dressing, and foreign intrigue, but he takes it out of the ordinary by making the trigger for the various plot lines come down to the very real human tragedy of slavery and the fear of being 'sold down river.'
Although the suspense story may seem simple or outdated to a contemporary reader, many of Twain's themes are not. The subject of nature versus nurture is still debated today as are the politics of language and dialect. Twain's titular character is a hobbyist in what was then the nascent science of fingerprinting and his discussion compares to the contemporary debate over DNA evidence. Of course, the biggest problems the author addresses remain our biggest social challenges-- racial discrimination, the gap between the haves and have nots, and the persistence of classist social systems.
Artistically, no, this is not Huckleberry Finn, but few books are. Twain's use of irony wells up from every scene, every phrase so much so that it shines brilliantly. It is a pleasure to read and it keeps you thinking long after it is over.


The War Prayer
By: Mark Twain
My friends, this week I am only publishing one eBook. The events of the past week have been such that I have not been able to go through the trvialities of eBook preparation. I have been glued to the television, sick at heart and afraid of what is to come. The one eBook that im publishing is the only one that I know of that is worthy of being published here this week.
When Mark Twain wrote 'The War Prayer' and showed it to a friend, the friend said that it was a most important writing and that it should be published immediately as far and wide as possible. But Twain disagreed and said that it indeed was powerful but not to publish it until after he had died. And it was not published until after the death of the writer.
Please take this slim volume and read it. Then think about what is to come...
September 15, 2001


Tom Sawyer Abroad
By: Mark Twain
Join Tom, Huck and Jim as they venture in a balloon across the Atlantic. As they float over Aftica Tom tells stories and Jim... well you just have to read this long neglected work. Tom Sawyer Abroad is a companion work to Tom Sawyer Detective. You'll enjoy them both.


Tom Sawyer, Detective
By: Mark Twain
During their ride downriver on the way to visit Tom's Uncle Silas, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn encounter a series of mysterious clues--stolen diamonds, a mysterious stranger, manhunters, and others. Written in the vernacular - one of Twain's specialities - the reader is kept in suspense, right down to the final chapter. As always anything by Twain is an excellent read. Not to mention that something is learned in the process.


Dangerous Days
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
The darkening storm of the first World War threatens to tear apart the lives of a group of friends. At the eye of the storm is Clayton Spencer, an ambitious businessman, who must risk everything to be with the woman he loves.


The Bat
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Someone--or something--is trying to frighten Cornelia Van Gorder to death. But the plucky patrician doesn't scare easily. In fact, she's always longed to play detective. Until she stumbles on a corpse one storm-swept night, and realizes she's involved in a deadly game with an elusive killer known as The Bat.


The Breaking Point
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
What happened to Jud Clark? Has he run off, is he dead? He was supposed to have died ten years ago. Well, if he is dead, then who was that at the theater with the girl in the blue dress?


The Circular Staircase.
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
After seeing a shadowy face and hearing ominous sounds, Rachel Innes is convinced that her rented summer house in the Adirondacks is haunted. Then, the night after her niece and nephew unexpectedly arrive, Rachel discovers a dead body at the foot of the circular staircase. But it isn't until her relatives become the prime suspects that Rachel fears for her own life.


The Man in Lower Ten
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Lawrence Blakely, attorney-at-law, sets off by train to deliver valuable documents in a criminal case. His ride will be eventful. Along the way he'll encounter romance, treachery, a train wreck, even a murder in which he'll be implicated. Who's after Blakely and his papers -- why? The first detective novel to appear on national bestseller lists, THE MAN IN LOWER TEN is still a great read almost ninety years after its publication. It has all the thrills of a contemporary whodunit and a satiric edge that gently mocks the conventions of male detective fiction.


THE STREET OF SEVEN STARS
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Murder, fear and crime. Mary roberts Rinehart thrills with this early mystery. If intention is a crime then the action may follow suit.


Tish
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
While Mary Roberts Rinehart is best known for her mystery novels, she wrote a series of short stories about three aging spinsters. Tish is the ringleader of this trio and she guides them through one reckless adventure after another. While not every story is a perfect gem, most of them are funny. They are worth reading and re-reading. The stubborn and iron-willed Tish is a delight to read about.
Courtesy : Christopher Valdez


Where There's A Will
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
One of Mary Roberts Reinhart's great mysteries Where There's A Will brings the most interesting set of people together under the most interesting circumstances with surprising results. This one will keep you guessing.


Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
By: Mary Wollestonecraft Shelly
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century Gothicism. While stay-ing in the Swiss Alps in 1816 with her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, Mary, then eighteen, began to concoct the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he brings to life by electricity. Written in a time of great personal tragedy, it is a subversive and morbid story warning against the dehumanization of art and the corrupting influence of science. Packed with allusions and literary references, it is also one of the best thrillers ever written. Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus was an instant bestseller on publication in 1818. The prototype of the science fiction novel, it has spawned countless imitations and adaptations but retains its original power.


The Seventh Man
By: Max Brand
After Vic Gregg Kills Blondy Hansen, he takes off for the hills with a posse in hot pursuit. But 'Whistling Dan' Barry thinks Gregg is innocent and acts to prevent his capture, putting himself on the wrong side of the law.
Barry holds onto his belief, despite Gregg's malodorous history (six other killings). A seventh dead man finally tips the balance, leading Barry to fresh calculations.
'A heart-stopping sequel to Max Brand's 'The Untamed and The Night Horseman.'


The Fathers of the Constitution
By: Max Farrand
Here is a look at John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin and all the other men who forged the new nation of America. This is their story, their vision and their work. Without them and their work this world would be a different place today.


The Darrow Enigma
By: Melvin L. Severy
As the part I played in the events I am about to narrate was rather that of a passive observer than of an active participant, I need say little of myself. I am a graduate of a Western university and, by profession, a physician. My practice is now extensive, owing to my blundering into fame in a somewhat singular manner, but a year ago I had, I assure you, little enough to do. Inasmuch as my practice is now secure, I feel perfectly free to confess that the cure I effected in the now celebrated case of Mrs. P- was altogether the result of chance, and not, as I was then only too glad to have people believe, due to an almost supernatural power of diagnosis.


A Grandpa's Notebook
By: Meyer Moldeven
Meyer Moldeven has written a delightful book that is filled with stories, ideas, models and memoirs to encourage intergenerational outreach and communication. The book is vital to parents and families for it shows ways to bring the joy of intergenerational communication to the fore. So much is lost when childrena nd grandchildren never hear to stories of their grandparent's youth. And much is lost as well when the young do not communicate well with their grandparents and parents. This book can help bring alive oral history of all generations.


The Civilization of Illiteracy
By: Mihai Nadin
The spectacular but unsettling reality of faster cycles of change, breakdown of traditional values and institutions, and many other symptoms of technological innovation-what makes these necessary is the subject of this thought-provoking book. All the good intentions of educators, scholars, politicians, and policymakers will fail if they do not recognize why literacy as a dominant framework of human activity is no longer adequate. The current dynamics of human activity is without precedent. It is not the result of technology, but of deeper forces of change. The answer to the failure of many seemingly eternal institutions-government, family, education-is not improvement in the traditional sense, but a fundamentally new perspective. The digital paradigm underlying the new civilization provides a basis for this perspective. But it will be misapplied unless understood within the broader framework of the driving forces behind human activity.
From the AuthorThis book is as much about language and literacy as it is about everything pertaining to it: family, politics, the market, war, sports, old and new media. It is about the process of cutting the umbilical cord that binds people to literacy. We live in a world of a dynamic never before experienced in history. In this world, many new literacies, of shorter duration, override the need and possibility of one encompassing literacy. The sense of permanence and eternity that this literacy instilled prevents us from making the best of technological progress. It is no wonder that it is disintegrating. The new literacies provide means for human interaction appropriate to achieving probably the most radical forms of individualism and the most intriguing means of social interaction. We are in for a ride that can only get more exciting. Those who insist on bringing along the baggage of their literate prejudices will get sick at each curve in the road. And they'll miss the many rainbows along the way.
This book Copyright ? 1997 by Mihai Nadin


Don Quixote
By: Miquel de Cervantes
This literary masterpiece, part parody and part cautionary tale, describes adventures of a middle-aged gentleman from La Mancha, who one day decides to set out into the world to do good deeds in the name of his ladylove, Dulcinea. In his many adventures, he mistakes inns for castles, windmills for giants and flocks of sheep for opposing armies. Though he is out of place, often ludicrous and considered profoundly mad by all who know him, Don Quixote maintains his innate goodness and unwavering commitment to chivalry.
This synopsis submitted by Romuald (George) Czajkowski


The Scarlet Letter
By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
The story of a woman persecuted by the narrow Calvinist-Puritan Boston society that was the author's own heritage. The book examines the circumstances of Hester's illegitimate pregnancy, reveals the shocking identity of the father, and attacks this society for blaming the innocent.


In the Beginning was the Command Line
By: Neal Stephenson
I don't know where this work came from, but it is well worth presenting and reading. Here is a great story about the history of computing in the age of the birth of the personal coMputer. it is a great read, interesting, informative and downright fun. It brings back memories of the 'early days' - or for some the 'golden age' of computing. But it also digs down deep intot he foundations and brings for th nuggets worth treasuring. From Jobs to Gates, this is a book to read.



The Prince
By: Nicolo Machiavelli
'The Prince' is splendid reading on several levels. First, one appreciates Machiavelli as a problem solver. For divided Italy the question had to be asked; what is the most practical and efficient means for a wise prince to consolidate his power and unify it? But one also appreciates Machiavelli as a person. A florentine intellectual banished to the countryside -- to him it must have been torture.
Once asked whether Machiavelli was a cynic, a realist, or a patriot, the answer revealed the belief that the correct answer is all three. Much of Machiavelli's advice contains an under current of cynicism and ruthlessness, and this has undoubtedly come to be the dominant portion of his reputation. One of the terms for devil, 'Old Nick' is derived from Machiavelli. When one speaks of destroying an enemy or performing a ruthless, sneaky act, that person is likely to be called 'machiavellian'. But Machiavelli's advice was as realistic as one could get in those times. This was an era when despots and mercenaries ruled by force and assasination. It was a time when popes fathered children and carved out little principalities for themselves. One was not going to remain in power, much less get ahead of one's enemies by being virtuous. It isn't that Machiavelli despised virtue so much as he realized how useless it was in the political context of the times. But in the end Machiavelli was also an idealist. He dreamed of a united Italy under a strong (and practical) prince. When he dedicated his treatise to Rodorigo Borgia, he did so in the hopes that he might be the man to perform such a task.
This book provides timeless practical advice for anyone who wishes to succeed in a hostile, divisive environment. It also illuminates the peculiar political circumstances of Renaissance Italy.


The Black Experience In America
By: Norman Coombs
'This volume depicts the immigrants from Africa as one among the many elements which created present-day America. On the one hand, they differ from the other minorities because they came involuntarily, suffered the cruelties of slavery, and were of another color. All of this made their experience unique. On the other hand, they shared much in common with the other minorities, many of whom also felt like aliens in their new land.' From the Preface of The Black Experience in America.


The Gift Of The Magi
By: O. Henry
The Gift Of The Magi is one of O. Henry's classic stories. It tells of young love at Christmas time. A young couple just beginning their wedded life and of very limited means want more than anything to give each other a gift that will reflect and celebrate their devotion, one to the other. The gifts they select, and at the cost to each of them, all result in one of the most endearing, heartwarming, and humorous of conclusions.
Thanks to Nancy, whoever you are, for reminding me of this treat.


The Common Law
By: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
The Common Law, published in 1881, was based on a series of lectures addressed to a lay audience in Boston by the most respected of all American jurists, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Avoiding specialized language of his own or any other era, Holmes explains with scintillating clarity the fundamental concepts of law.
For its clarification of basic legal principles that continue to underlie even the most current and controversial issues, The Common Law belongs on every lawyer's bookshelf.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) is generally considered one of the greatest justices of the United States Supreme Court. In more than 2,000 opinions, Holmes delineated an impressive legal philosophy that profoundly influenced American jurisprudence, particularly in the area of civil liberties and judicial restraint. In THE COMMON LAW, the ideas and judicial theory of Holmes can be studied and appreciated.


Frequently Asked Questions about Ebola
By: Ornstein & Matthews
I don't know where I stumbled on this little FAQ, but I found it fascinating reading. Though it is not specifically mentioned here, did you know that a strain of ebola actually invaded a monkey house in Maryland? That was actually the basis for the movie, 'Outbreak.' It's kind of chilling, but between the scare over anthrax and ebola, ebola is a lot more scary.


The Canadian Dominion
By: Oscar D. Skelton
The history of Canada since the close of the French regime falls into three clearly marked half centuries. The first fifty years after the Peace of Paris determined that Canada was to maintain a separate existence under the British flag and was not to become a fourteenth colony or be merged with the United States. The second fifty years brought the winning of self-government and the achievement of Confederation. The third fifty years witnessed the expansion of the Dominion from sea to sea and the endeavor to make the unity of the political map a living reality--the endeavor to weld the far-flung provinces into one country, to give Canada a distinctive place in the Empire and in the world, and eventually in the alliance of peoples banded together in mankind's greatest task of enforcing peace and justice among nations


End Game
By: Patrick Schepman
This little story came to my e-mail box one day recently. Mr. Schepman saw this site and gave you the book to read. To be honest I have not had the chance to read it, though it looks to be a very nice post-apocalyptic tale. Enjoy this story.


Light Speed
By: Paul Harrington
Light Speed!
Second Edition
This second edition of Light Speed is not a complete re-write but a number of inconstancies have been have been rectified. Also with the help of a new editor Paul Harrington has made this read so much more enjoyable while keeping the story line always in mind.
In the effort of rushing the first edition to press a number of grammatical and spelling errors were overlooked. They have all been corrected in this second edition.
If you liked Light Speed the first time around you will love this version. It makes the sequel, 'To Whom The Stars Belong' that much more anticipated!
Light Speed is a fast paced ride into the world of the future. Two rival Mega Corporations battle for control of the worlds first FTL engine technology.
When Shepherd Industries discovers a practical faster than light engine, rival Atoms Technical begins a corporate espionage mission to steel the plans.
Meanwhile Micah Shepherd's daughter Rebecca and freighter pilot John Burke try to work out a turbulent relationship as Burke himself is asked by Micah Shepherd to oversee a new project. A secret star ship called the ESS Destiny.
All of Atoms technical efforts at espionage begin to fail so Bernard Rush, CEO of Atoms Technical, kidnaps Rebecca Shepherd hoping to force Shepherd Industries to give up their new technology. Ultimately his bid fails and with his dying breath Rush takes out his frustration by trying to destroy his rival.
Burke's tests of the new star ship prove successful and he becomes instrumental in saving his love Rebecca and preventing the demise of his employer by stopping Rush's plans to destroy Shepherd's holdings.
Rebecca is injured in the end by fire and must recover in the sickbay of the Destiny. During this time she realizes her future should be with the worlds first star ship captain John Burke.
Coming Soon Book 2 -'To Whom the Stars Belong'


Maid in Boston
By: Paula Corbett
A romantic story of a farm girl who moves to the big city of Boston to work for a high tech company. She enters an entirely new world of romance, excitement, and big city ways.


Now It Can Be Told
By: Philip Gibbs
Here is Gibbs first hand account of the World War I on the western front, He speaks of the tragidy of war and of this war in particular. As Mr Gibbs says, ' The purpose of this book is to get deeper into the truth of this war and of all war--not by a more detailed narrative of events, but rather as the truth was revealed to the minds of men, in many aspects, out of their experience; and by a plain statement of realities, however painful, to add something to the world's knowledge out of which men of good-will may try to shape some new system of relationship between one people and another, some new code of international morality, preventing or at least postponing another massacre of youth like that five years' sacrifice of boys of which I was a witness.'


Notes of a War Correspondent
By: R. H. Davis
Richard Harding Davis was a war correspondent during the Spanish Anmerican war. In this short book he details the things that he witnessed personally making a history that comes alive.


The Dynamiter
By: R.L. Stevenson & F. Stevenson
Three bored men, down to their last few pennies, vow to go out into London's streets and pursue whichever adventure befalls them. What ensues is a series of remarkable stories in which the protagonists encounter several characters who may or may not be conspirators in a bombing plot on behalf of Irish independence. The characters weave intriguing and troubling tales of their histories. The chapters stand alone as adventures, but the whole is tied together nicely in the end. There is a strong satirical bent throughout the book , but some of the stories carry hidden political punches as well. The relationship of the various characters is mysterious, yet Stevenson does little to perpetuate the mystery. He is more concerned with the storytelling, and that storytelling is terrific. More than that, I dare not write, as details would quickly expose the interconnected aspects of the stories. Suffice to say that in a book about British wanderers, Stevenson manages to tell tales of murderous Mormons, crazed Voodoo practitioners, and wayward Bohemian princes, among others. Courtesy of John S. McDonald


Bardelys the Magnificent
By: Rafael Sabatini
Being an Account of the Strange Wooing pursued by the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol, Marquis of Bardleys, and of the things that in the course of it befell in in Languedoc, in the year of the Rebellion is seen here in a Grosset and Dunlap reissue from 1905 Arthur Pearson plates. The tale features a hero who is 'a handsome, reckless favorite of Louis XIII' but who sews seeds of rebellion against his monarch. Beautiful maidens, castles, swordfights, everything Sabatini promises.


Captain Blood
By: Rafael Sabatini
Wronged from the moment this book begins Doctor Peter Blood sees his life deteriorate before his very eyes. From being a respected physician he finds himself called a pirate and a murderer. And this by the very lady whom he loves.
Here is the greatest of all swash buckling tales of the high seas. Sabatini, in his inimitable style combines blood curdling adventure with romance, humor and more to make your blood hot in your veins. You won't put this book down!
Kate Halleron contributed this book.


Love-at-Arms
By: Rafael Sabatini
'If you are in case to fear betrayal, it may well be, my friends. As I crossed the bridge over the Metauro and took the path that leads hither, my eyes were caught by a crimson light shining from a tangle of bushes by the roadside. That crimson flame was a reflection of the setting sun flashed from the steel cap of a hidden watcher. The path took me nearer, and with my hat so set that it might best conceal my face, I was all eyes. And as I passed the spot where that spy was ambushed, I discerned among the leaves that might so well have screened him, but that the sun had found his helmet out, the evil face of Masuccio Torri.' There was a stir among the listeners, and their consternation increased, whilst one or two changed colour. 'For whom did he wait? That was the question that I asked myself, and I found the answer that it was for me. If I was right, he must also know the distance I had come, so that he would not look to see me afoot, nor yet, perhaps, in garments such as these. And so, thanks to all this and to the hat and cloak in which I closely masked myself, he let me pass unchallenged.'
So it begins and in true fashion Sabatini takes us all on a rollicking ride to the very end, where of course, boy gets girl, or is it the other way around?


Mistress Wilding
By: Rafael Sabatini
It begins with the throwing of a glass of wine into the face of a geneleman. And it ends... If you've read at least one Rafael Sabatini book you already know how it ends. If you haven't, then read this book. There is never a dull moment in this tale of swashbuckling romance. Sabatini's dry wit flashes through from the first page to the last. Revel in it, this book is a keeper.


Scaramouche
By: Rafael Sabatini
Scaramouche tells the exciting story of a young aristocrat thrust by chance into the turbulent politics of the French Revolution. His successive endeavors as a lawyer, politician, actor, lover, and buffoon lead his enemies to call him 'Scaramouche' - the clown - but he fights on, dazzling the world with his elegant orations and precision swordsmanship. This delightful classic overflows with memorable escapades and begins with an unforgettable first line: He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.


St. Martin's Summer
By: Rafael Sabatini
The life of an heiress is in jeopardy and her only hope is to place her trust in the wiles of a middle-aged swordsman with no use for 'women's troubles.' As the plots of the conspirators converge it will take all the wiles and accumulated wisdom of Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache to uncover their identity, to save Valerie de La Vauvraye and keep his promise to his Queen.


The Historical Nights' Entertainment
By: Rafael Sabatini
In approaching 'The Historical Nights' Entertainment' I set myself the task of reconstructing, in the fullest possible detail and with all the colour available from surviving records, a group of more or less famous events. I would select for my purpose those which were in themselves bizarre and resulting from the interplay of human passions, and whilst relating each of these events in the form of a story, I would compel that story scrupulously to follow the actual, recorded facts without owing anything to fiction, and I would draw upon my imagination, if at all, merely as one might employ colour to fill in the outlines which history leaves grey, taking care that my colour should be as true to nature as possible. For dialogue I would depend upon such scraps of actual speech as were chronicled in each case, amplifying it by translating into terms of speech the paraphrases of contemporary chroniclers.


The Life of Cesare Borgia
By: Rafael Sabatini
Rafael Sabatini wrote not only the wonderful adventure and romantic historical novels where the hero and the heroine always fall in love and into each other's arms in the last paragraph of the bok, but was also a historian who wrote detailed histories of his subjects. Here is his history of Cesare Borgia, son of Alexander VI. And with it the storu of his sister Lucrezia. Their names conjure up unrivaled evil, for one was a murderer and adventure and the other a poisoner.
Here is the tale as can be only told by Rafael Sabatini.


The Lion's Skin
By: Rafael Sabatini
Since childhood and his mother's cruel death, young Caryll had been bred in France by his guardians for one purpose -- to wreak their vengeance on the father who had never known him. But Caryll did not complete his mission. Instead, he sailed for England and plunged into a maelstrom of dissension and revolt that teemed with danger for his -- and for beautiful Mistress Winthrop who loved him. But, in the end the hunter failed, and in this case, the lion was generous.


The Sea-Hawk
By: Rafael Sabatini
If you liked Captain Blood you will love Sea-Hawk. The hero is a Cornish gentleman accused of murder, kidnapped from England and forced into life as a Barbary corsair--a leader of 'The Sea-Hawks.' His anger at his brother, who caused his troubles, and fiance, who rejected him and his protestations of innocence, is easy to understand--and sympathize with.
The book will grab you by the throat and drag you into the adventures of Sir Oliver, the Cornish knight turned barbary corsair and his firecracker of a girlfriend, Rosamund. You won't know whether to love or be in horror of Sir Oliver. But you will undoubtedly admire him. Not only is he clever, witty, resourceful and funny, but sarcastic and arrogant as well, which makes for a delightfully rounded character. The girl he loves deserves to be loved, unlike most silly heroines. Rosanmunde has sense and honor. You will understand the terrible amoral brother Lionel even as you hate what he puts poor Sir Oliver through.


The Shame of Motley
By: Rafael Sabatini
Set in the days of the Borgias this is the story of Lazzaro Biancomonte. Lazzaro is also known as the court jester in Pesario's Court. But, of course, it goes much deeper than that for Lazzaro is much more than the jester in this rollicking swashbuclking adventure as only Sabatini could posibly have written it.


The Snare
By: Rafael Sabatini
This is a novel of murder and intrigue set in the Napoleonic wars, specifically in Portugal. Una O'Moy must save her brother from the firing squad, while her husband, Sir Thomas must fulfill the dictates of his office. But when he kills a man in a duel his whole world falls apart. This delightful novel is full of twists and turns, never dull! If you enjoyed Captain Blood you will enjoy The Snare.


The Strolling Saint
By: Rafael Sabatini
Being the Confessions of the High and Mighty Agostino D'Anguissola Tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina, in the State of Piacenza.
Sabatini does it again in The Strolling Saint. This is a book you won't want to put down.
And, of course, you know there is a woman involved!


The Suitors of Yvonne
By: Rafael Sabatini
Rafael Sabatini has written some of the best and most fun filled historical fiction of all time. I shamefully admit that I am a fan. Sometimes the last page of the book can be predicted - boy gets girl - but it is still worth the read. Filled with adventure, swashbuckling and romance the Suitors of Yvonne is no exception to the works of Sabatini. Enjoy.


The Tavern Knight
By: Rafael Sabatini
What happens when father and son both vie for the hand of the same fair maiden? Here is an early Sabatini. It shows that the man was destined for greatness and also shows that an average Sabatini work is better than much of what is written today. The plot twists are interesting if contrived and predictable. Still a fun read.


The Trampling of the Lilies.
By: Rafael Sabatini
When La Boulaye recovered consciousness he was lying on his back in the middle of the courtyard of the``Chateau de Bellecour. From a great stone balcony above, a little group, of which Mademoiselle de Bellecour``was the centre, observed the scene about the captive, who was being resuscitated that he might fittingly``experience the Seigneur's vengeance.


The Barrier
By: Rex Beach
Many men were in debt to the trader at Flambeau, and many counted him as a friend. The latter never reasoned why, except that he had done them favors, and in the North that counts for much. Perhaps they built likewise upon the fact that he was ever the same to all, and that, in days of plenty or in times of famine, his store was open to every man, and all received the same measure. Nor did he raise his prices when the boats were late. They recalled one bleak and blustery autumn when the steamer sank at the Lower Ramparts, taking with her all their winter's food, how he eked out his scanty stock, dealing to each and every one his portion, month by month. They remembered well the bitter winter that followed, when the spectre of famine haunted their cabins, and when for endless periods they cinched their belts, and cursed and went hungry to sleep, accepting, day by day, the rations doled out to them by the grim, gray man at the log store. Some of them had money-belts weighted low with gold washed from the bars at Forty Mile, and there were others who had wandered in from the Koyukuk with the first frosts, foot sore and dragging, the legs of their skin boots eaten to the ankle, and the taste of dog meat still in their mouths. Broken and dispirited, these had fared as well through that desperate winter as their brothers from up-river, and received pound for pound of musty flour, strip for strip of rusty bacon, lump for lump of precious sugar. Moreover, the price of no single thing had risen throughout the famine.


Under the Andes
By: Rex Stout
Lured by the legends of Inca gold, a beautiful dancer and two brothers enter a mysterious cave. What they don't realize is that others live there, protecting the gold of their ancestors; others, now misshapen after generations of living underground.


The South Pole Volume 1
By: Roald Amundsen
In 1910 Roald Amundsen set out to find both the fabled Northwest Passage but also to travel to the South Pole. He and his crew set out on the ship 'Fram' on this ill fated voyage. Never the less they did travel to Antarctica through much toil and pain. Here is the story of that heroic adventure.


Stories From The Old Attic
By: Robert Harris
This delightful book will be a treasure to be cherished and to be read time after time. It is composed of vignettes, parables, and very short stories. Most - but not all - have a moral. the reader will meet him or herself over and over and yet will laugh or smile at what is read. Sometimes a story will go straight to the heart but not cause pain, but introspection. This is a book that makes the reader tink and laugh - both at the same time.
Copyright 1992 by Robert Harris


The Spell of Egypt
By: Robert Hichens
All my life I have been enchanted and held in spell by Egypt. From the stories of searching for the sources of the Nile to the curse of King tut I have hooked. this book is not gaudy or filled with unnecessary tales. Instead it explains that which I can not, the spell of ancient Egypt and why it is strong, even in the twenty first century.


Across The Plains
By: Robert Lewis Stevenson
Robert Lewis Stevenson is known for his works such as 'Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde', 'Treasure Island' and more adventurous books. But he was also a prolific writer of books on travel. Here we read of his experience as he trveled through out the western United States. This is an enjoyable read and will tell you something about the author.


In the South Seas
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
In his book, In the South Seas, Stevenson gives an accurate and in depth look into the people and culture of the islands of the South Pacific. The book describes Stevenson's two year journey from the Marqueses Islands, to Tahiti, then Honolulu, and finally Somoa. Stevenson uses the great adventures he experienced and his masterfully writing skills to paint a breath taking view of the islands and thier many beauties.
Courtesy: Kenneth Harper


The Black Arrow
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
War, treachery, disguise, secret passages, shipwrecks, damsels in distress -- an amazing amount gets packed into this not-very-long book. Great fun, but the pseudo-fifteenth-century dialog ('Sirs, this knave arrow likes me not. But it importeth rather to take counsel.') will prove an unfortunate obstacle to the very readers who would otherwise enjoy the story most, the young.
The Black Arrow seems to me to be one of the most underrated books I have ever seen. It is one of the very few works of Stevenson and probably one of the best. It is an excellent mix of romance, drama and action, and is guaranteed to hold your interest. It is Stevensons only work in the field of Romance/Drama and is a work to rival such classics as The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask. The language has a slight archaic ring to it which is, after reading the foreword by Stevenson, realized to be quite deliberate. A must read.


The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson originally wrote Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde as a 'chilling shocker.' He then burned the draft and, upon his wife's advice, rewrote it as the darkly complex tale it is today. Stark, skillfully woven, this fascinating novel explores the curious turnings of human character through the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, a kindly scientist who by night takes on his stunted evil self, Mr. Hyde. Anticipating modern psychology, Jekyll And Hyde is a brilliantly original study of man's dual nature -- as well as an immortal tale of suspense and terror. Published in 1866, Jekyll And Hyde was an instant success and brought Stevenson his first taste of fame. Though sometimes dismissed as a mere mystery story, the book has evoked much literary admirations


Treasure Island
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children of all ages want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic. Anyone who thinks this book is boring has to have a screw loose! From the arrival of the mysterious Billy Bones, to the attack on the inn, to the sea voyage, to the mutiny, to the battle for the island, to the treasure hunt, even to the final fate of John Silver, this book is a stunning rollercoaster of suspense and adventure!
Here's a bit of information you might enjoy: the meaning of the pirates' song--
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The real-life pirate, Edward Teach (Blackbeard the Pirate) once marooned 15 of his men on a small island named Dead Man's Chest. He put them ashore with no weapons, equipment or supplies--just a bottle of rum.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron


A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar
By: Robert Sewell
The two Portuguese chronicles, a translation of which into English is now for the first time offered to the public, are contained in a vellum-bound folio volume in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, amongst the manuscripts of which institution it bears the designation 'Port. No. 65.' The volume in question consists of copies of four original documents; the first two, written by Fernao Nuniz and Domingo Paes, being those translated below, the last two (at the end of the MS.) letters written from China about the year 1520 A.D. These will probably be published in translation by Mr. Donald Ferguson in the pages of the Indian Antiquary.
The first pair of original papers was sent with a covering letter by some one at Goa to some one in Europe. The names are not given, but there is every reason for believing that the recipient was the historian Barros in Lisbon.
Both these papers are in the same handwriting, which fact -- since they were written by separate Portuguese merchants or travellers at Vijayanagar in different years, one, I believe, shortly subsequent to 1520 A.D., the latter not later than about 1536 or 1537 -- conclusively proves them to be copies of the originals, and not the originals themselves.[2] I have inserted a facsimile of two pages of the text, so that no doubt may remain on this point. The first portion consists of the conclusion of the text of Fernao Nuniz; the second of the covering letter written by the person who sent the originals to Europe; the third of the beginning of the text of Domingo Paes.
Paes being the earlier in date (about 1520) I have given his account of personal experiences first, and afterwards the historical summary composed by Nuniz about the year 1536 or 1537.


Kim
By: Rudyard Kipling
Kim is probably one of the best books ever written on India and certainly within the league of E.M.Forster and Paul Scott.
This little treasure describes India with a love and power of observation that is absolutely captivating and charming at the same time. Kim is a rogue like Huck Finn and Oliver Twist. He is the man for all opportunities and is called the 'Friend of all Mankind'. He is neither Hindu nor Muslim, he is neither Buddhist nor Christian. Given his background as the orphan son of a Irish military man and a local girl he is a little bit of everything.
In Kim Kipling personifies all the good of Inida while playing down the contrasts, in particular the religious one; he shows us what India would have been like in an ideal situation of mutual tolerance.
Apart from these philosophical considerations, Kim is simply a very well written book. Every passage betrays Kiplings background as a poet and sometimes passages really need to be reread for their beauty. His observations are striking and one realises from time to time that it is not the writers imagination about a period long gone; he was actually part of that period. One thing Kim is not: a childrens book. Like Siddharta ,a child may be the main character, but the book is far to philosophical and aimed observing intricate human behaviour to be of much interest to children.
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Jungle Book
By: Rudyard Kipling
Here are the stories of Mowgli and his friends in the jungle. It will bring back memories, and remind you of the real stories behind the classic movie.


Wild Justice
By: Ruth M. Sprague
Copyright ? 1993 Ruth M. Sprague
The court and the EEOC said sex discrimination!
Belmont U. terminated her anyway!

Belmont University had always looked upon faculty misdeeds such as child molestation, sexual harassment or record falsification with a tolerant if not blind eye. Strange then that the entire administration mobilized to aim its big guns at Professor Diana Trenchant-or was it?
     The inner workings of administrative jingoism are exposed as a popular teacher is given a termination hearing where the presiding officer is the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge, and the testimony in her defense is ignored.
'Wild Justice chronicles the outrages of one woman's experience with an engaging mix of humor and indignation. The use of fictitious names underscores how the problems are systemic and not merely rooted in the particular persons involved in this `witch hunt'. I hope it will be widely read- both for its own sake and to encourage the kind of struggle that redirects higher education to serve the people and social justice, however wild!'
     Professor Willard Miller, University of Vermont.


The Boss and the Machine
By: Samuel P. Orth
With politics so fresh in the minds of Americans here is a book that reminds us all that even in the good old days all was not sweetness and light. And those good old days go back a long way. Here is the history of politics, so to speak, in America. Interesting reading.


Iron Workers and Tool Makers
By: Samuel Smiles
The Author offers the following book as a continuation, in a more generally accessible form, of the Series of Memoirs of Industrial Men introduced in his Lives of the Engineers. While preparing that work he frequently came across the tracks of celebrated inventors, mechanics, and iron-workers— the founders, in a great measure, of the modern industry of Britain— whose labours seemed to him well worthy of being traced out and placed on record, and the more so as their lives presented many points of curious and original interest. Having been encouraged to prosecute the subject by offers of assistance from some of the most eminent living mechanical engineers, he is now enabled to present the following further series of memoirs to the public.


Quest of the Sacred Slipper
By: Sax Rhomer
Sax Rhomer is back with the Quest for the Sactred Slipper. Here is murder, mayhem and intrigue at its finest. Here is a a relic of the Near East. But weird, supernatural horrors followed the theft and movement of this relic of the Near East to a London museum. Was that the reason those warned been singled out for mutilation - and death ?


Dope
By: Sax Rohmer
This novel may have been prompted in part by the death of Billie Carleton, a London showgirl, who performed in the Armistice Victory Celebration at Albert Hall and died in her hotel room later that night of an overdose -- presumably opium obtained in Limehouse. The incident led to an official five year long investigation of Chinatown's drug traffic and a new novel from Sax Rohmer which the dustjacket proclaimed to be 'based upon actual conditions as they existed in London.' Rohmer explicitly denies that Dope was based on the Carleton case. He claims the story was 'on the stocks' before the case became public.
Courtesy: Robert E. Briney


The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
By: Sax Rohmer
The Master of Death - death in every form, brutal, mysterious - death of the body and death of the mind and soul. That was Fu-Manchu, the greatest criminal genius the world has ever known. Subtly, his world-wide organization had grown and spread, its tentacles reaching into the very governments and police forces of the West. Only one man knew the full danger of Fu-Manchu's plan - Denis Nayland Smith. On him alone depended the fate of western civilization - and Fu-Manchu had marked him for extinction!


The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
By: Sax Rohmer
Fu Manchu is back in what was originally a series of short stories. Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie must stop his plot to destroy the enemies of the Seven. Contains the fiendish torture device called the Gates of Joyful Wisdom, perhaps the villains most grisly device. Nayland Smith is placed in a compartmentalized trap where rats will work their way up his flesh as each successive gate is opened.


The Yellow Claw
By: Sax Rohmer
Terror from the Orient! '...With puzzled face, Dunbar opened the envelope and withdrew the Commissioner's note. It was very brief:-- 'M. Gaston Max, of the Paris Police, is joining you in the Palace Mansions murder case. You will cooperate with him from date above.' 'Max!' said Dunbar, gazing astoundedly at his subordinate. Certainly it was a name which might well account for the amazement written upon the inspector's face; for it was the name of admittedly the greatest criminal investigator in Europe! 'And so it falls to Gaston Max to stop Fu Manchu?s prototype, the powerful and mysterious 'Mr. King,' a dealer in drugs and the head of an unabashedly 'yellow peril' organization named the 'Sublime Order.'


The Mad Philosopher
By: Sholder Greye
I believe that the narrator is (or was, I should say; he died soon after completing these confessions) insane, for during the months that I met with him, and transcribed exactly the words that issued from his mouth, I do not think he ever directly acknowledged my existence, or recognized my presence in the room any more than he might have registered a speck of dust on the bureau in the corner. He was entirely absorbed within himself, and frankly, I am amazed that he found the energies necessary to speak with such vigor as he did. Sometimes, he would mumble, and I could hardly discern what he was saying; then, with frightening suddenness, he would burst into wild, intense, staccato, almost incoherent passions, and the words would flow from his mouth, seemingly disjointed, but in the final analysis, surprisingly relevant. I admit, I found it all to be rather spooky. In the midst of his diatribes and rantings, nothing seemed to make sense, but when I went back over the recordings, and wrote the words down to paper, somehow they came together into a recognizable pattern - like those pictures one sometimes encounters, which at first glance seem utter chaos, but upon further, minute investigation, when viewed from just the right angle or under precisely the right circumstances of slightly skewed perception, one discovers that there is hidden within the randomness a scheme and a delicate proportion previously unsuspected. That is the sort of man who wrote these so-called 'Confessions.'


Random House vs Rosetta Books
By: Sidney H. Stein, U. S. District Judge
In the year 2000 and the beginning of 2001, Rosetta Books contracted with several authors to publish certain of their works - including The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice by William Styron; Slaughterhouse- Five, Breakfast of Champions, The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut; and Promised Land by Robert B. Parker - in digital format over the internet. (Def. Ex. 21- 23; http:// www. rosettabooks. com/ pages/ about_ us. html.) On February 26, 2001 Rosetta Books launched its ebook business, offering those titles and others for sale in digital format. (Cantos Aff. ? 2, Ex. A; http:// www. rosettabooks. com). The next day, Random House filed this complaint accusing Rosetta Books of committing copyright infringement and tortiously interfering with the contracts Random House had with Messrs. Parker, Styron and Vonnegut by selling its ebooks. It simultaneously moved for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Rosetta from infringing plaintiff's copyrights.


Babbitt
By: Sinclair Lewis
Published in 1922, Babbit, a satire on the American middle class, is Sinclair Lewis' second novel. He was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
George F. Babbit at age 46 is a successful real estate broker in the midwestern town of Zenith. He, his wife and three children live in a modern house in the development of Floral Heights. It has all the modern conveniences, yet it doesn't have the atmosphere of a home. The neighbors, while appearing different, all seem to be as standardized as the houses.
At home George often dreams of a fairy girl; a harmless dream, but showing his dissatisfacton with his current lifestyle. He feels powerful at work as he dictates letters to his secretary. George frequents The Athletic Club, where everyone meets, not to exercise, but to dine, smoke and socialize.
Myra Babbit, George's wife, is rather a dull women, but even so, she is also vaguely dissatisfied with their life.


The Fifteen Decisive Battles Of The World
By: Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.
A 150-year-old classic account of famous battles of the past 2,300 years that fundamentally changed the course of world history. Battles under discussion include the battle of Marathon, the victory of Arminius over the Roman legions under Varus, the battle of Hastings, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the battle of Waterloo.
Depending on your point of view this book is either biased to the British way of military thinking, or is the place to start your collection. Either way it is a definitive book.


The Golden Bough
By: Sir James George Frazer
Frazer's classic 'The Golden Bough' may justifiably be called the foundation that modern anthropology is based on. While it has been discredited in some areas since it's 1st publication, it has stood the test of time remarkably well. It's still the best book to explain the origins of magical and religious thought to a new student of comparative religions. It is especially recommended to anyone interested in mythology, supernatural magic or religion, especially any of the modern neo-pagan religions. More than one critic has said that it should be required reading for everyone.
Originally, Frazer sought to explain the strange custom at an Italian sacred grove near the city of Aricia. He wanted to know why it was custom there for a priest of Diana to continually guard a sacred tree with his life. Why was it required that this pagan priest murder anyone who dares to break a branch from the tree and why were so many willing to risk their lives to do so? What power did this broken branch have that made it a symbol of the priests own coming death? Why could the priest only be relieved of his position by being ritually murdered and who in their right mind would strive to take his place?
What Frazer discovered in his search for answers went well beyond what he expected to find. He very quickly found himself surrounded by ancient pagan beliefs and magic rituals that were as old as mankind and just as widespread. He slowly reveals to us, by way of hundreds of examples, that ancient or primitive man was bound up in a never ending web of taboos and restrictions that regulated his existence here on earth. Every move, spoken word or even thought could swing the powers of the divine for or against pagan man. Every action was bound by religious code and any mistake could invoke supernatural retribution. The entire world, it seemed, was a reflection of the mystic other world that pagan man worshipped and everything here was symbolic of something there. While studying this idea Frazer covers many other perplexing questions about culture and belief that have affected our lives. For example, he explains the origins of many of our holidays. He reveals the original symbolism and meaning of the Christmas tree and mistletoe and tells us what they represent. He explains the pagan origins of Halloween and why it's necessary to placate the spirits who visit your home that night. He solves the question of why Easter isn't a fixed holiday but is instead linked to the Spring Equinox and just what colored eggs have to do with anything. In short he covers just about every known superstition or tradition and relates it back to it's pagan beliefs.
What emerges from this collection of superstition and folktales isn't a chaotic mess of mumbo-jumbo but is instead a fully expounded religious system. Frazer shows again and again that these traditional customs and continuations of ancient rites are the basis for a religious system pre-dating any of our own. We find that in this system man can not stand apart from nature or the world. Nor can he commit any action without it's usual equal but opposite reaction. Eventually, we learn of the powerful but frightening association between a king's fertility and his lands well-being. Lastly, we learn that it's not always 'good to be king' and just what sort of horrible price one must pay to be 'king for a day'.
But more than all of this Frazer is commenting on our own times and our own beliefs. 'The Golden Bough' isn't simply about ancient pagan religious ideas for their own sake. The book provides and explains these ideas so we can see how they are still in operation even today. Primitive pagan beliefs and symbolism are with us daily, besides the obvious Christmas tree and Easter eggs. Behind his exhaustive examples and explanations of mystic or secret magic rituals Frazer is actually commenting on our own Judeo-Christian religions. A careful reading between the lines reveals what Frazer was afraid


Vikram and the Vampire
By: Sir Richard R. Burton
The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the history of a huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited and animated dead bodies. It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legend composed in Sanskrit, and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which inspired the 'Golden Ass' of Apuleius, Boccacio's 'Decamerone,' the 'Pentamerone,' and all that class of facetious fictitious literature.
The story turns chiefly on a great king named Vikram, the King Arthur of the East, who in pursuance of his promise to a Jogi or Magician, brings to him the Baital (Vampire), who is hanging on a tree. The difficulties King Vikram and his son have in bringing the Vampire into the presence of the Jogi are truly laughable; and on this thread is strung a series of Hindu fairy stories, which contain much interesting information on Indian customs and manners. It also alludes to that state, which induces Hindu devotees to allow themselves to be buried alive, and to appear dead for weeks or months, and then to return to life again; a curious state of mesmeric catalepsy, into which they work themselves by concentrating the mind and abstaining from food - a specimen of which I have given a practical illustration in the Life of Sir Richard Burton.
The following translation is rendered peculiarly; valuable and interesting by Sir Richard Burton's intimate knowledge of the language. To all who understand the ways of the East, it is as witty, and as full of what is popularly called 'chaff' as it is possible to be. There is not a dull page in it, and it will especially please those who delight in the weird and supernatural, the grotesque, and the wild life.


Great Astronomers
By: Sir Robert S. Ball D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S.
Great Astronomers is a series of essays on the founders of modern science - specifically astronomy. This is a fascinating book which brings history and science together into one volume.


Ivanhoe
By: Sir Walter Scott
The epitome of the chivalric novel, Ivanhoe sweeps readers into Medieval England and the lives of a memorable cast of characters. Ivanhoe, a trusted ally of Richard-the-Lion-Hearted, returns from the Crusades to reclaim the inheritance his father denied him. Rebecca, a vibrant, beautiful Jewish woman is defended by Ivanhoe against a charge of witchcraft--but it is Lady Rowena who is Ivanhoe's true love. The wicked Prince John plots to usurp England's throne, but two of the most popular heroes in all of English literature, Richard-the-Lion-Hearted and the well-loved famous outlaw, Robin Hood, team up to defeat the Normans and reagain the castle. The success of this novel lies with Scott's skillful blend of historic reality, chivalric romance, and high adventure.


The Lady of the Lake
By: Sir Walter Scott
The scene of the poem, The Lady of the Lake is laid chiefly in the vicinity of Loch Katrine, in the Western Highlands of Perthshire, Scotland. The time of Action includes Six Days, and the transactions of each Day occupy a Canto.
The Lady of the Lake was first published in 1810, when Scott was thirty-nine, and it was dedicated to 'the most noble John James, Marquis of Abercorn.'
This poem, the action of which lay among scenes so beautiful was a labour of love by Scott, and it was no less so to recall the manners and incidents introduced. It was the frequent custom of King James IV., and particularly of James V., to walk through their kingdom in disguise, which afforded Scott the hint of an incident which never fails to be interesting if managed with the slightest address or dexterity.
Here is Sir Walter Scott's epic poel, The Lady opf the Lake, with notes and anotations.


Organic Gardeners Composting
By: Steve Solomon
If you are interested in gardening then you should be interested in composting. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about composting. This book is enlightening and educational and fun to read. Before you turn a spade of soil you should read this book.
Note: This book uses a number of tables. It is possible that early versions of Microsoft Reader will not display them properly, or at all.


Under the Carpet
By: Steven Hager and Jim Garrison
Conspiracy theories abound when it comes to the assassination of John Kennedy. Some of them have even been made into movies. Some say we will never know the truth and others say that there is nothing to hide. The real mystery of JFK is that the appearance of cover-up, intrigue, CIA conspiracies and all the rest may never be proved. And maybe there is nothing to prove.Under the Carpet is presented to you the reader simply because it is.
I just publish them, I don't endorse them.


Underground
By: Suelette Dreyfus
Underground is the compelling true story of the rise of the computer underground and the crimes of an elite group of hackers who took on the forces of the establishment.
Tracing an international ring of computer hackers which spanned three continents and nearly a decade of computer crime, author Suelette Dreyfus weaves a gripping tale against a backdrop of cutting edge technology. Underground uncovers the previously hidden story behind hackers from 8LGM, The Realm, the publishers of International Subversive and other linked Internet hacking groups. These elite hackers were the cream of the international computer underground and broke into tens of thousands of computers, belonging to some of the world's most prestigious institutions including Citibank, the Pentagon, NATO, the FT 100, NASA, Lockheed-Martin, Deutsche Telekom and Australian Telecom. After hacking the Defence Data Network's NIC, some had total control over the most important computers on the Internet - computers which would let them stop communications across the entire net. They divised methods of making free and untraceable telephone calls to hide their activities, invented worms, stalked, hacked and thumbed their noses at security experts such as Eugene Spafford & Cliff Stoll and reporters from the New York Times. They monitored the police -- while the police monitored them. The hackers came from all walks of life, gathering on-line in Germany from Australia, Europe, the UK, the US and Canada, to pursue their targets with an obsessive fervour.
Irreverent, sometimes brilliant and always obsessed, many of the hackers found themselves addicted to their illegal behaviour. Some fell to drug addiction and madness, others were convicted and jailed for their crimes.
Riveting as the finest detective novel and meticously researched, Underground follows the hackers through their crimes, their betrayals, the hunt, raids and investigations by the Australian Federal Police, the FBI, the Secret Service, the DST (French Secret Service) and Scotland Yard, and the resulting trials; their life on remand, on the run accross America, in prison, mental hospital and beyond.
Based on more than two years of writing and research drawn from hundreds of exclusive interviews and telephone intercepts and over 30,000 pages of court documents, Underground is the first hacking book published out of Australia and the only one to delve into the mind and world of the international computer hacker. Critically aclaimed, it has been said that Underground is the only book to examine the computer underground with real depth and insight.
Copyright ? 2001 Suelette Dreyfus


On the Art Of War
By: Sun Tzu
Written in China over two thousand years ago, Sun Tzu's The Art of War provides the first known attempt to formulate a rational basis for the planning and conduct of military operations. These wise, aphoristic essays contain principles acted upon by such twentieth-century Chinese generals as Mao Tse Tung. Samuel Griffith offers a much-needed translation of this classic which makes it even more relevant to the modern world. Including an explanatory introduction and selected commentaries on the work, this edition makes Sun Tzu's timeless classic extremely accessible to students of Chinese history and culture, as well as to anyone interested in the highly volatile military and political issues in present-day China.
The writings of the ancient warrior Sun Tzu have provided tremendous wisdom to generations through the ages. Now these philosophies are available with anecdotal extracts by the author of Shogun and Noble House.


Grimms Fairy Tales
By: The Brothers Grimm
One of the things that struck me as I read these stories is how short some of our favorite fairy tales really are. The other thing that struck me with wonder is how Disney could possibly take these delightful little tales and turn them into feature length movies. The story of the 'Little Mermaid' for example is only a few paragraphs long. Cinderella isn't that much longer.
Some of these stories are absolutely delightful in their irony or in the way a person tricks another in a humorous way. The story of 'Ali And The Sultan's Saddle' immediately springs to mind. I had to laugh as his fast thinking and his humor. Some of these stories have morals that we sometimes seem to forget exist; and all are educational and fun in one way or another.
Nowadays it isn't popular to read stories by the Brothers Grimm as they are politically incorrect. but perhaps we need to take a step back to examine ourselves and how serious we try to make the world and all things in it. There is still a lot of room for the stories of Ali Baba, the Fox and the Elephant, Goldilocks and all the rest. So take the time to read this book and to remember your own childhood and sense of wonder. Then read them to your children. Don't tell your children to read them, but read these stories to them yourself. Both your kids and you will be glad that you did.


The Atomic Bombing of Japan
By: The Manhattan District
Here in all of its clinical detail is the official report from the Manhattan Project to the U.S. Government on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. At times chilling and always provocative this books details it all.


Presidential Inaugural Addresses
By: The Presidents of the United States
Here in one volume are the inaugural address of the presidents of the United States. Presented in chronological order they are a living reminder of those men who have lead this nation in times of peace and war. In times of prosperity and want. In good times and bad. Their words reflect the spirit of the nation over the past two centuries and the beginnings of the third. This is a reissue on January 20, 2001, Inauguration Day, with the inclusion of the Inaugural Address of George Walker Bush.


Hunting the Grisley
By: Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman as well as a vigorous supporter of conservation. Here he tells of his hunting exploits and educates at the same time. This is an enjoyable read.


Theodore Roosevelt an Autobiography
By: Theodore Roosevelt
Outstanding! This book is a tome of philosophy, adventure, intrigue, and above all, inspiration. Notwithstanding these encomia however, the reader should beware before making a hegira into its noble pages that this autobiography does not follow the traditional structure of a 'biography.' Rather it can be described as being a compendium of T.R.'s philosophy on life. The true strength of its pages being found in how T.R.'s experiences and actions staunchly uphold and support his 'vigor of life' and probity which he so often addressed as being fundamental to all good Americans. Accordingly, I suggest a first-time reader of T.R. would be best served by initially reading a more 'objective' biography of T.R. (I suggest Nathan Miller's Theodore Roosevelt, A Life) in order to become familiar with the events and time frames involved. This will allow the reader to more appreciate the nature, values and beliefs of the great man as told in this book by the ultimate authority, himself.
Along with being completely inspired by a man of such high moral values, the factual anecdotes related in this book comfort you in the knowledge that this hero practiced what he preached. In a speech by his own hand, T.R. embodied his own life; 'The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;...who strives valiantly...who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.'
T.R. was a naturalist, legislator, cowboy, businessman, soldier, author, conservationist, U.S. President, world explorer, and above all an inspirational 'doer of deeds.' This book eloquently tells the reader why he felt he needed to perform these deeds and what was going through his mind all the while.
Courtesy: : Richard J. Larrabee


Far From The Madding Crowd
By: Thomas Hardy
At the beginning of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful young woman without a fortune. She meets Gabriel Oak , a young farmer, and saves his life one evening. He asks her to marry him, but she refuses because she does not love him. Upon inheriting her uncle's prosperous farm she moves away to the town of Weatherbury. A disaster befalls Gabriel's farm and he loses his sheep; he is forced to give up farming. He goes looking for work, and in his travels finds himself in Weatherbury. After rescuing a local farm from fire he asks the mistress if she needs a shepherd. It is Bathsheba, and she hires him. As Bathsheba learns to manage her farm she becomes acquainted with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood, and on a whim sends him a valentine with the words 'Marry me.' Boldwood becomes obsessed with her and becomes her second suitor. Rich and handsome, he has been sought after by many women. Bathsheba refuses him because she does not love him, but she then agrees to reconsider her decision. That very night, Bathsheba meets a handsome soldier, Sergeant Troy.
Unbeknownst to Bathsheba, he has recently impregnated a local girl, Fanny Robin, and almost married her. Troy falls in love with Bathsheba, enraging Boldwood. Bathsheba travels to Bath to warn Troy of Boldwood's anger, and while she is there, Troy convinces her to marry him. Gabriel has remained her friend throughout and does not approve of the marriage. A few weeks after his marriage to Bathsheba, Troy sees Fanny, poor and sick; she later dies giving birth to her child. Bathsheba discovers that Troy is the father. Grief-stricken at Fanny's death and riddled with shame, Troy runs away and is thought to have drowned. With Troy supposedly dead, Boldwood becomes more and more emphatic about Bathsheba marrying him. Troy sees Bathsheba at a fair and decides to return to her. Boldwood holds a Christmas, to which he invites Bathsheba and again proposes marriage; just after she has agreed, Troy arrives to claim her. Bathsheba screams, and Boldwood shoots Troy dead. He is sentenced to life in prison. A few months later, Bathsheba marries Gabriel, now a prosperous bailiff.


Tess of the d'Urbervilles
By: Thomas Hardy
The tragic story of a young woman in Victorian England. Get out your hankies.


United States Constitution
By: Thomas Jefferson et. al.
The Constitution of the United States is the document upon which the freedom of all Americans is founded. This simple document has withstood the test of time and is the model for many other nations. This is a reference which all people should have.


Needles of Stone
By: Tom Graves
Published in the 1970s, Tom Graves' seminal book Needles of Stone first identified ancient power-points (stone circles and standing stones) as the acupuncture points of the Earth. This is an archaeological energy-dowser's classic, covering energy-leys, underground water, the construction of megalithic sites and how to research these matters yourself.


A Young Girls Diary
By: Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul
Not to be confused with the Diary of Anne Frank.
This diary is a gem. Never before, I believe, has anything been written enabling us to see so clearly into the soul of a young girl, belonging to our social and cultural stratum, during the years of puberal development. We are shown how the sentiments pass from the simple egoism of childhood to attain maturity; how the relationships to parents and other members of the family first shape themselves, and how they gradually become more serious and more intimate; how friendships are formed and broken. We are shown the dawn of love, feeling out towards its first objects. Above all, we are shown how the mystery of the sexual life first presses itself vaguely on the attention, and then takes entire possession of the growing intelligence, so that the child suffers under the load of secret knowledge but gradually becomes enabled to shoulder the burden. Of all these things we have a description at once so charming, so serious, and so artless, that it cannot fail to be of supreme interest to educationists and psychologists.
Sigmund Freud


Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War
By: U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Now, in January 2001, with the showing of the movie Thirteen Days the world is once again reminded of the threat of nuclear war. But what are the effects of such a war? Here is a detailed look at the effects of nuclear war to the entire world. It is a sobering reminder of what nuclear war is really capable of.


Personal Memoir of U.S. Grant Vol. I
By: Ulysses S. Grant
Volume I of the two volume autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, General and President of the United States.


Personal Memoir of U.S. Grant Vol. II
By: Ulysses S. Grant
Volume II of the two volume autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, General and President of the United States.


Beowulf
By: Unknown
Beowulf, written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.
A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature and is known as the oldest work in the English language.
Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire which destroyed the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631).
The Beowulf manuscript still bears the scars of the fire, visible at the upper left corner of the manuscript. It is now housed in the British Library, London.



The Grey Men
By: unknown
'You must know that there are certain families (literally) that control the hard currency. The countries wherein these families abide are known as hard currency countries. These thirteen families have control of the policy making and the decision making of the central banks of those countries.'
This is a quote from this short book. If there is a conspiracy here it is a powerful one.
I just publish them, I don't endorse them.


The History of Cleopatra
By: Unknown
The story of Cleopatra is a story of crime. It is a narrative of the course and the consequences of unlawful love. In her strange and romantic history we see this passion portrayed with the most complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its intoxicating joys, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it always and inevitably ends.


Buddah The Gospel
By: Unknown Translator
Although this is a really old and linguistically dated, for a variety of reasons this is the simplest place for a person familiar with the Gospels to begin an inquiry into the life of the Buddha (as opposed to Buddhism as a religion generally-- which is much to broad for this book to cover in its just over three hundred pages....) For a book that is almost one hundred years old, its author did a remarkable job of summarizing the sutras that detail the life of the Buddha such that Christians would grasp that yes, this man was teaching many of the same things as was the man who taught in their Bible
This is a good place to learn about the Buddha's life. However, a person versed only in this book would not be familiar with most of the forms of Buddhism as they were actually practiced-- it would be difficult to identify how Zen of Pure Land or Vajrayana Buddhism came to be having just this little book much in the same wasy it would be impossible to determine how Christianity had changed and developed throughout time having only the record provided in the New Testament, or Judaism having only the Pentatuch
For those acquainted with Buddhist literature, this book is vaguely similar in content to the Digha Nikaya ('The Long Discourses of the Buddha') in that both are trying to portray how Buddhism, or the thought and teachings of the Buddha were portrayed at the time of his life as opposed to any kind of philosophy, etc. which developed later.


The Jungle
By: Upton Sinclair
This cornerstone of American literature has had a greater impact on American society than any other 20th-century novel. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. Sinclair said that he 'aimed for the public's heart but by accident hit it in the stomach.' His portrayals of the horrors of the Chicago meatpacking industry so offended the American public that it resulted in the pure-food legislation of 1906 and the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Jungle is Sinclair's extraordinary contribution to literature and social reform. Few works of fiction have had the impact of this powerful work.


The Machine
By: Upton Sinclair
Sinclair set to work upon what he intended to be a trilogy of novels portraying the life of the city of New York. The first of these novels, 'The Metropolis', dealt with what calls itself 'society'; the second, 'The Moneychangers', with 'high finance'; the third, which was to be called 'The Machine,' was to carry its hero through a political career, presenting a study of 'Tammany Hall' and the slums. This work was undertaken at a time when the writer was in wretched health and under great nervous strain. He was unable to make either of the two published volumes what he had intended; and the third volume he was unable to write at all - the most superficial study of the material brought him into contact with so much misery and oppression that he found the attempt was literally wrecking him.
The theme, however, kept haunting him, and conditions which he had discovered cried out for publicity. He found that the work was taking, in his mind, the shape of a play, and so finally it came to be written. He is aware of the fact that two inadequate novels and a play constitute a somewhat dubious literary form. However, 'The Machine' is to be read by itself - he makes the explanation here merely in order that readers of 'The Metropolis' and 'The Moneychangers' may understand why they find the same characters in the play, and may know what was the story to which the two novels were intended to lead up.


The Profits Of Religion
By: Upton Sinclair
I won't pretend to tell you that I have read and enjoyed this entire book. There are some things about Upton Sinclair and his writings that just rub the wrong way. Never the less this book is a must read simply because of the tenor of the wold religions of the present day. All religions can not possibly be right and it seems that too many religions lean too far to meet the ends of their own means. Whether we are of Islam, Christian or Jewish background it matters little if we keep our faith and do it faithfully. But when politics, ideology and money get in the way all of humanity is in for a hard ride.
Not trying to preach (though I am a minister in the United Church of Christ) it is apparent that it is not the basis of human faith that drives some of organized religion but the politics and dollars surrounding us that drive human religion. Be it the selling of indulgences in the time of Luther and Zwingly, or the insanity of killing innocents in the name of the most holy (Allah, God) in the Crusades, the Inquisition, or on September 11, 2001, it is still wrong! Sometimes 'faith' takes a back seat to expediency and profit.
Upton Sinclair takes us on a trip through the history and background of religion and shows how it has been bastardized in many ways. The book is not an easy or comfortable read, but it does point out things that some would rather remain hidden. Read this book and then judge for yourself.


Okewood Of The Secret Service
By: Valentine Williams
Douglas Oakwood is a character who is featured in a number of books by Williams called 'The Clubfoot Series', named after the arch nemesis, Dr. Adolph Grundt (Clubfoot). The protagonist, Oakwood, who was wounded in World War I and retired is pulled into the field of espionage. His brother Frances has dissappeared behind the lines in Europe and so Douglas Oakwood goes undercover in hopes of finding him somewhere behind the war torn lines.


Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Issue
By: Various
This anthology was created for the 1995 Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. In this book you will find writings from many sources, from today and yesterday. Excellent reading and an excellent reminder of just who Martin Luther King Jr. was and what he means to all people everywhere.


Roswell and Other UFO Mysteries
By: Various
Was it a UFO, or a balloon? We may never know, but the whole world changed with Roswell. Here are a number of articles from well known and not so well known individuals on the subject of UFOs. You can take it or leave it, but you certainly can't ignore it.
Most portions of this book are copyright by the authors and not by myself.
I just publish the se books, I do not endorse them.


The Holy Bible
By: Various
This text of the Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate. The Old Testament was originally published by the English College at Douay in 1609-1610. The New Testament was originally published by the English College at Rheims in 1582. This is not the King James Version, it obviously predates the KJV by hundreds of years. The names of the books may be slightly unfamiliar to the reader but they are the same names found in the modern translations, just more verbose. This edition also includes the Apocryphal books not usually included in the Protestant translations.


Stories of Africa
By: various English Writers
In this book of stories of Africa you will find the familiar Alan Quatermain, a character created by H. Ryder Haggard (think of King Solomon's Mines) and the less familiar as well. A balanced collection of stories this book will surely have something for everyone.
Here is adventure in the Dark Continent, romance, excitement, danger, mystery presented by some of the best writers of their day. The authors include Arthur Conan Doyle, J. Landers, William C. Scully, Percy Hemingway and more.
This is a book you will enjoy.


The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
By: Vicente Blasco Ibanez
This book depicts in great detail a way of life that is so changed from the present that it might as well be science fiction. The story begins in South America and moves to France and both places are described in loving detail. The father had first left Europe to avoid serving in the military and he returns, unknowingly, in time for his son to become involved in World War I. The description of the changing opinions and moods in Paris were fascinating. How many times have people thought a war would be over in a matter of weeks? The insight into pre World War I Germany was very educational. Many of the characteristics that I had assumed arose with the Nazis prior to WWII were clearly present much earlier. This book should not be missed by anyone interested in history or human nature.
Courtesy: Joanne Clarke


The Hunchback of Notre Dame
By: Victor Hugo
Contrary to popular opinion the novel Le Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo is not primarily about the deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo. Quasimodo's role is actually surprisingly small in the story, which makes you wonder why the English translater's chose 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' as the translation for the title. Actually, as the original French title would indicate, it is the cathedral itself that is the focus of the book. This is why in the unabridged editions of this book you will find numerous chapters that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot of the story. This is the books weakest point, and it may turn many people away from the book. Once you get into the plot, however, it is iimpossible to put the book down. The characters are intriguing: composer Pierre Gringoire, archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, once a paragon of virtue now tormented by his corrupt love for a gipsy girl, L'Esmerelda, the naive gipsy dancer, Phoebus, the selfish, egotistical captain of the guards, and of course Qausimodo, a deaf, deformed bellringer. The relationships between these characters are complex and dark but they make an unforgettable story. The story is never, from front to back, a happy one, so if you are looking for a book that makes you 'feel good' this is not the one for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a good book to read, that is unafraid to deal with the darker side of reality, I highly recommend 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.'
Courtesy Gerry T. Neal
This book was contributed by Kate Halleron.


The Riddle Of The Rhine Chemical Strategy In Peace And War
By: Victor Lefebure
An account of the critical struggle for power and for the decisive war initiative. The campaign fostered by the great Rhine factories, and the pressing problems which they represent. A matter of pre-eminent public interest concerning the sincerity of disarmament, the future of warfare, and the stability of peace
This book was written shortly after the First World War when the horrors oc chemical warfare became to be known.


The Aeneid
By: Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro was commisioned by Caesar Augustus to author a national epic for Rome. The work which Virgil composed for this purpose was the Aeneid. It is an epic poem that tells the story of a minor character from Homer's Iliad who leads a rag-tag band from the smouldering ruins of Troy in order to found a 'New Troy' to the west: Rome. It is in the Aeneid, not the Iliad that we see the spectacle of the Trojan Horse and the famous line 'I do not trust Greeks bearing gifts.' The Iliad ends with the death of Hektor - before the plan of the Trojan Horse is devised by Odysseus. The Odyssey picks up after the sack of Troy. The Aeneid fills in the gaps and narrates the story of the few Trojans who escape the wrath of the Greeks. According to legend, Romulus and Remes (the two brothers who eventually founded the city itself) were descendents of Aeneas. It is highly recommended that one read the Iliad & the Odyssey before embarking on Virgil's work.


Leaves of Grass
By: Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is perhaps the finest American poet ever as well as the most quintessentially American poet. His poetry never dates itself. It is as contemporary as if he just wrote it last week. Walt Whitman's poems overflow with life and energy, pulsate with excitement, and contain deep though simply-told truths that rival those of any wise man in history. Much maligned during life and after for the eroticism of his writing, he never let his inhibitions hold back his writing and thus it sparkles with honesty. Walt Whitman was also a great patriot, who loved America in a way modern Americans would do well to emulate. He sought it out on its own terms and recorded what he saw in his poetry. His war poems, written during the American Civil War, are some of the best war poems existing in literature. Whitman knew his subject, having spent much time caring for the wounded soldiers in the hospitals and visiting battlefields. His poems create vivid pictures, richly textured, as real as you read them as if you were seeing the scene yourself. And the dialog he carries on with the reader makes the reader feel that Whitman, if he were still alive, would like nothing more than to sit down and discuss life. He is one of the few poets who manages to establish a rapport with his reader, to anticipate his reader's reactions and talk to each one through the poem. Walt Whitman should be read by any and every literate American. 'Leaves of Grass' will change anyone who dares to read it.


The Return
By: Walter de la Mare
'But I suppose we are all pretty much the same, if we only knew it,' he had consoled himself. 'We keep our crazy side to ourselves; that's all. We just go on for years and years doing and saying whatever happens to come up-and really keen about it too'-he had glanced up with a kind of challenge in his face at the squat little belfry-'and then, without the slightest reason or warning, down you go, and it all begins to wear thin, and you get wondering what on earth it all means.' ... He smiled, but a little confusedly; yet the thought gave even a spice of adventure to the evening's ramble.
     He loitered on, scarcely thinking at all now, stooping here and there. These faint listless ideas made no more stir than the sunlight gilding the fading leaves, the crisp turf underfoot. With a slight effort he stooped even once again;-

     'Stranger, a moment pause, and stay;
     In this dim chamber hidden away
     Lies one who once found life as dear
     As now he finds his slumbers here:
     Pray, then, the Judgement but increase
     His deep, everlasting peace!'

Nothing like a little mystery to brighten your day (or darken your evening) and this is just the one for you. It begins in a graveyard and who knows where it will end...


The Adventures of Captain Bonneville
By: Washington Irving
'While engaged in writing an account of the grand enterprise of Astoria, it was my practice to seek all kinds of oral information connected with the subject. Nowhere did I pick up more interesting particulars than at the table of Mr. John Jacob Astor; who, being the patriarch of the fur trade in the United States, was accustomed to have at his board various persons of adventurous turn, some of whom had been engaged in his own great undertaking; others, on their own account, had made expeditions to the Rocky Mountains and the waters of the Columbia.
     Among these personages, one who peculiarly took my fancy was Captain Bonneville, of the United States army; who, in a rambling kind of enterprise, had strangely ingrafted the trapper and hunter upon the soldier. As his expeditions and adventures will form the leading theme of the following pages, a few biographical particulars concerning him may not be unacceptable.'
     So writes Washington Irving as he begins this great tale of the adventures of Captain Bonneville while in the west.


The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
By: Washington Irving
Here is the real story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is nothing like the recent movie but is a true spine chilling tale. Meet Ichabod Crane and find out why he is so frightened of the Headless Horseman.


Port Jackson
By: Watkin Tench
Port Jackson tells of the settling of this area of Australia when it was a penal colony. This is an interesting history and is enlightening in a number of ways. Learn about how the penal system worked and of the history of Australia.


After Dark
By: Wilkie Collins
The Author himself writes, 'I have taken some pains to string together the various stories contained in this Volume on a single thread of interest, which, so far as I know, has at least the merit of not having been used before.
'The pages entitled 'Leah's Diary' are, however, intended to fulfill another purpose besides that of serving as the frame-work for my collection of tales. In this part of the book, and subsequently in the Prologues to the stories, it has been my object to give the reader one more glimpse at that artist-life which circumstances have afforded me peculiar opportunities of studying, and which I have already tried to represent, under another aspect, in my fiction, 'Hide-and-Seek.' This time I wish to ask some sympathy for the joys and sorrows of a poor traveling portrait-painter--presented from his wife's point of view in 'Leah's Diary,' and supposed to be briefly and simply narrated by himself in the Prologues to the stories. I have purposely kept these two portions of the book within certain limits; only giving, in the one case, as much as the wife might naturally write in her diary at intervals of household leisure; and, in the other, as much as a modest and sensible man would be likely to say about himself and about the characters he met with in his wanderings. If I have been so fortunate as to make my idea intelligible by this brief and simple mode of treatment, and if I have, at the same time, achieved the necessary object of gathering several separate stories together as neatly-fitting parts of one complete whole, I shall have succeeded in a design which I have for some time past been very anxious creditably to fulfill.'


Antonina, or the Fall of Rome
By: Wilkie Collins
In preparing to compose a fiction founded on history, the writer of these pages thought it no necessary requisite of such a work that the principal characters appearing in it should be drawn from the historical personages of the period. On the contrary, he felt that some very weighty objections attached to this plan of composition. He knew well that it obliged a writer to add largely from invention to what was actually known--to fill in with the colouring of romantic fancy the bare outline of historic fact--and thus to place the novelist's fiction in what he could not but consider most unfavourable contrast to the historian's truth. He was further by no means convinced that any story in which historical characters supplied the main agents, could be preserved in its fit unity of design and restrained within its due limits of development, without some falsification or confusion of historical dates--a species of poetical licence of which he felt no disposition to avail himself, as it was his main anxiety to make his plot invariably arise and proceed out of the great events of the era exactly in the order in which they occurred.
     Influenced, therefore, by these considerations, he thought that by forming all his principal characters from imagination, he should be able to mould them as he pleased to the main necessities of the story; to display them, without any impropriety, as influenced in whatever manner appeared most strikingly interesting by its minor incidents; and further, to make them, on all occasions, without trammel or hindrance, the practical exponents of the spirit of the age, of all the various historical illustrations of the period, which the Author's researches among conflicting but equally important authorities had enabled him to garner up, while, at the same time, the appearance of verisimilitude necessary to an historical romance might, he imagined, be successfully preserved by the occasional introduction of the living characters of the era, in those portions of the plot comprising events with which they had been remarkably connected.


The Frozen Deep
By: Wilkie Collins
The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is an English sea-port. The time is night. And the business of the moment is--dancing.
The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, in celebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from their port. The ships of the expedition are two in number--the Wanderer and the Sea-mew. They are to sail (in search of the Northwest Passage) on the next day, with the morning tide.
Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. The band is complete. The room is spacious. The large conservatory opening out of it is pleasantly lighted with Chinese lanterns, and beautifully decorated with shrubs and flowers. All officers of the army and navy who are present wear their uniforms in honor of the occasion. Among the ladies, the display of dresses (a subject which the men don't understand) is bewildering--and the average of beauty (a subject which the men do understand) is the highest average attainable, in all parts of the room.


The Haunted Hotel
By: Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins, who wrote such landmark (and lengthy) mysteries as 'The Moonstone' and 'The Woman in White,' has a very short effort, too. 'The Haunted Hotel' is that effort. As mysteries go, this one is rather understated, though one must make allowances for the fact that it was written in 1878, long before Christie, Carr, and others gave the genre a more definite shape. (One must also make allowances for the sexism contained in the book lest one hurl the book at the nearest wall, window, or other suitable repository.)
The story begins when a man and woman become engaged. Sadly, though, he was already engaged. His first fiancee very graciously bows out, and the man marries his second fiancee. They head to Venice, where their stay in a castle is marked by mystery. A maid quits. A porter then disappears without a trace. Finally, the man dies. All of these events lead toward a series of coincidences that draws the many characters together for a final revelation.
The story, though, is more a melodrama than a mystery. Indeed, the mystery is subverted for much of the story as the characters' lives overlap, collide, and generally run into each other. It is easy, amid this seeming chaos, to lose sight of the second fiancee, a fascinating character who is so dominated by her sense of fate and supernatural vengeance that she causes events for which she later blames Fate. Unfortunately, she is the most interesting character and is absent from too much of the story. She alone seems to break free of the rather confining roles imposed on the others by the times and the culture. In a longer book, her absences might be a source of great consternation, but the reader who pushes through the first 80 or so pages will be well rewarded in the last 50, where she reclaims center stage and where the mystery also comes to the fore.


The Moonstone
By: Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone is a cleverly contrived tale of a stolen Indian dimond which becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Vendier. When the incredible dimond is stolen, for the second time, the seemimly simple case becomes a masterpiece of mystery and suspense. The novel entangles us in every page. We become lost in the emotions of the 19th century characters. When the mystery begins to unfold, we delieghtedly press on, only to find that Collins has outwitted us again. Collins has an amazing talent for assuming a variety of narrative voices, which keep the reader envolved with the individual characters. Each new clue elicits thousands of questions, arousing in the reader, a desire to read on and on. The Moonstone is the most outstanding cassic detective mystery novel ever written.


The Queen of Hearts
By: Wilkie Collins
We are three brothers; and we live in a barbarous, dismal old house called The Glen Tower. Our place of abode stands in a hilly, lonesome district of South Wales. No such thing as a line of railway runs anywhere near us. No gentleman's seat is within an easy drive of us. We are at an unspeakably inconvenient distance from a town, and the village to which we send for our letters is three miles off.
My eldest brother, Owen, was brought up to the Church. All the prime of his life was passed in a populous London parish. For more years than I now like to reckon up, he worked unremittingly, in defiance of failing health and adverse fortune, amid the multitudinous misery of the London poor; and he would, in all probability, have sacrificed his life to his duty long before the present time if The Glen Tower had not come into his possession through two unexpected deaths in the elder and richer branch of our family. This opening to him of a place of rest and refuge saved his life. No man ever drew breath who better deserved the gifts of fortune; for no man, I sincerely believe, more tender of others, more diffident of himself, more gentle, more generous, and more simple-hearted than Owen, ever walked this earth.


The City That Was
By: Will Irwin
At the turn of the twentieth century San Francisco was a vibrant city. Then in 1906 a devistating earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city. This short book tells of the city that was, San Francisco, before the earthquake.


Alexander's Bridge
By: Willa Cather
This novella is a charming period piece, a love story, and a fatalistic fable about a doomed love affair and the lives it destroys. Bartley Alexander's accidental meeting with the Irish actress he loved as a young man seems full of promise but leads instead to dishonesty and betrayal.
The metaphor of the bridge--the conduit to both the past and the future--figures prominently in this story of a Boston architect torn between his ongoing 'mid-life' crisis and his energetic, passion-filled past.
The story moves along well, and there is an interesting Henry James-like contrast of Europe and America. The beginning nicely portrays the Boston upper class, and the dramatic conclusion includes passages of great strength and imagination.


My Antonia
By: Willa Cather
First published in 1918, and set in Nebraska in the late 19th century, this tale of the spirited daughter of a Bohemian immigrant family planning to farm on the untamed land comes to us through the romantic eyes of Jim Burden. He is, at the time of their meeting, newly orphaned and arriving at his grandparents' neighboring farm on the same night her family strikes out to make good in their new country. Jim chooses the opening words of his recollections deliberately: 'I first heard of ?ntonia on what seemed to be an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America,' and it seems almost certain that readers of Cather's masterpiece will just as easily pinpoint the first time they heard of ?ntonia and her world. It seems equally certain that they, too, will remember that moment as one of great light in an otherwise unremarkable trip through the world.
?ntonia, who, even as a grown woman somewhat downtrodden by circumstance and hard work, 'had not lost the fire of life,' lies at the center of almost every human condition that Cather's novel effortlessly untangles. She represents immigrant struggles with a foreign land and tongue, the restraints on women of the time (with which Cather was very much concerned), the more general desires for love, family, and companionship, and the great capacity for forbearance that marked the earliest settlers on the frontier.
As if all this humanity weren't enough, Cather paints her descriptions of the vastness of nature--the high, red grass, the road that 'ran about like a wild thing,' the endless wind on the plains--with strokes so vivid as to make us feel in our bones that we've just come in from a walk on that very terrain ourselves. As the story progresses, Jim goes off to the University in Lincoln to study Latin and learns Virgil's phrase 'Optima dies ... prima fugit' that Cather uses as the novel's epigraph. 'The best days are the first to flee'--this could be said equally of childhood and the earliest hours of this country in which the open land, much like My ?ntonia, was nothing short of a rhapsody in prairie sky blue.


O Pioneers!
By: Willa Cather
Our heroine is named Alexandra, a Swedish woman who has to take care of the family at the death of her father. Meanwhile her brother Emil and her neighbor Marie have a clandestine type of love. This is a heartwarming novel and a very entertaining read. The setting is very well depicted and had a sense of magic. The characters are lively and realistic.


One of Ours
By: Willa Cather
Willa Cather's One of Ours follows the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska farm boy who is searching for some meaning to his existence. With his study at the university stripped away because of his father's farm, he bitterly drives himself into the monotony of farm life, establishes himself, and weds a woman who has little affection for him. Claude is searching for some kind of sustenance to create a life that has more meaning than chopping wood and mending fence. WWI comes along and Claude enthusiastically enlists in a cause he can be proud of, and finds a sense of purpose in the trench warfare, feeling a brotherhood among his fellow soldiers. To any reader interested in the Modern Period of American Literature, this novel pounds home the common themes of that period. Cather's description is adept as usual, while her plot is somewhat predictable. Nonetheless, it's a solid novel for readers to sink their teeth into.


Song of the Lark
By: Willa Cather
The Song of the Lark is a beautifully crafted novel with quite stunning visual and emotional imagery. Cather tells the poignant story of Thea Kronborg, a musically gifted girl. Thea struggles with her quaint, unartistic upbringing and tries to become her own woman. This novel is not one of Cather's easier books to read. If you have not read her before, or have read a little of her, I would suggest reading O Pioneers! or My Antonia. Both are wonderful,lyric novels. The Song of the Lark is one to read after these.


The Troll Garden
By: Willa Cather
First short-story collection by Willa Cather, published in 1905. Publication of the collection, which contains some of her best-known work, led to Cather's appointment as managing editor of McClure's Magazine, a New York monthly. The stories are linked thematically by their depiction of characters who seek the realm of beauty and imagination but are constantly assaulted by the vulgar and brutal outside world. The story 'The Sculptor's Funeral,' originally published in McClure's in 1905, concerns the reactions of the townspeople in a prairie village when the body of a famous sculptor is brought back to be buried there. The book's climactic story, now considered an American classic, is Paul's Case.

Courtesy The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature


Songs of Innocence
By: William Blake
This is the first volume of poetry issued by Elegant Solutions. Fittingly we select William Blake. Blake was 'one of the most prophetic and gifted rebels in the history of Western man - a man peculiarly of our time.' ; Alfred Kazin.
Here in one volume are Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience and the Book of Thel. Timeless works showing the two sides of the human soul.


Barry Lyndon
By: William Makepeace Thackeray
Meet Redmond Barry, the proud offshoot of a boozy clan. A handsome Irish upstart, he aspires to the rank of gentleman. He duels, drinks, spies, deserts (from two armies), gambles, cheats, lies and chases every skirt - all with impeccable honor, to hear him tell it.
Young Barry is never more gallant than in pursuit of Lady Lyndon, most sought-after heiress in England. And what lady could refuse her hand - and money - to so magnetic a charmet.
But great rank and wealth - so boldly won, so gloriously squandered - are not to last. Barry Lyndon must yet face the loss of his fortune, the revolt of his stepson, the collapse of his marriage, the death of a beloved child...


Vanity Fair
By: William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray subtitled 'Vanity Fair', his masterful comic novel, 'A Novel Without a Hero'. But while this big, baggy eight-hundred page monstrosity of comic characters and situations may lack a hero, it has two of the most memorable characters in English literature: Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp. The contrapuntal, shifting fortunes of these two women drive the narrative of this big book, painting, along the way, a brilliant satirical portrait of English and European society at the time of the Napoleonic wars. We first meet Amelia and Becky in the opening pages of the novel, leaving Miss Pinkerton's School for the wider world of fortune, love and marriage. Amelia Sedley, the naive, sheltered daughter of a rich London merchant whose fortunes will dramatically change over the course of her life, 'was a dear little creature; and a great mercy it is, both in life and in novels, which (the latter especially) abound in villains of the most sombre sort, that we are to have for a constant companion so guileless and good-natured a person.' In contrast, Becky Sharp, the impoverished orphan of an artist and a French opera singer of dubious repute, was a calculating, amoral social climber. 'Miss Rebecca was not, then, in the least kind or placable . . . but she had the dismal precocity of poverty.' From the opening pages, Thackeray captures the reader's interest in these two characters and carries the reader through marriages, births, deaths, poverty, misfortune, social climbing . . . even the Battle of Waterloo! While Amelia and Becky wind like a long, contrasting thread from the beginning to the end of this story, there are also plots and subplots, intrigues and authorial asides, and one character after another, all of this literary invention keeping the reader incessantly preoccupied and enthralled. Reading 'Vanity Fair' is the furthest thing from 'killing time' (as the dusty, misguided literary critic F. R. Leavis once said); it is, rather, the epitome of the nineteenth century English comic novel, a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Courtesy: Gary Jakaitis


Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
By: William Morris
Travel with Christopher from Oakenrealm to the Tofts and beyond. Meet Goldilind fair maid and celebrate at their marriage. Experience their life and adventures in this epic prose from the master, William Morris. Even at the stories depths Morris waeaves a tale filled with the most beautiful prose ever written. 'Reading Morris is like reading a song without notes but never the less sublime.'


The House of the Wolfings
By: William Morris
The House of the Wolfings is set in a land which is threatened by an invading force of Romans. Written partly in prose and partly in verse, it centers on a House or family-tribe that dwells by a great river in a clearing of the forest named Mirkwood, a name taken from ancient German geography and legend.... Its style is highly idiosyncratic, heavily laden with archaisms and poetic inversions in an attempt to recreate the aura of ancient legend. Morris's aptitude, despite the vagueness of time and place in which the story is set, for describing with great precision the details of his imagined landscape.


The Story Of The Glittering Plain
By: William Morris
The Glittering Plain was the first of Morris's great fantasies, published in 1891, and it set the style for such later works as The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles. Morris had perfected the genre by the time he wrote The Glittering Plain. His pseudo-mediaeval prose style is at its most enchanting, while the story keeps the reader enthralled throughout the volume. Morris established several of the hallmarks of heroic fantasy by creating a quasi-medieval setting for his tale and devising a simple, believable framework for magic to work. Here in The Story of the Glittering Plain he pitted his chivalric knights against supernatural forces.
Much of Morris' success is in communicating his own pleasure in these narratives to the reader; and the indefiniteness of place and time in which they are set, contrasted with the extreme definiteness of their imaginary topography, gives them the vivid charm of fairy-tale. His mind still ran upon the northern epic, and the scenes and personages of the first three of these romances, so far as they belong to any country at all, belong to the remote north of Europe.


The Well at the World's End
By: William Morris
This is a beautiful story, a rich fantasy, a vibrant fairy-tale with no fairies. Strictly speaking, as regards genre, it is a 'romance'. The chivalric, bardic story of Ralph of Upmeads, the least likely of the King's four sons, who devotes his life to the quest of the Well at The World's End, a fabled well which promises to reward its discoverer with perpetual youth.
Morris' calm mastery of invention is like a slow intoxication, lifting you up one deceptively simple phrase at a time, until you are passed through his stained glass window of clear prose and a fresh new world is revealed, full of bloodshed and beauty. One comes to realize this book was not meant as mere allegory or escapist adventure, but as a True Quest, with nuggets of eternity scattered throughout, and a great Sunrise welling up in the near distance


Wood Beyond the World
By: William Morris
The language, style and story of this novel lend it an aura of antiquity, as if it too was merely a translation of some medieval romance. The hero of the story, Golden Walter, flees his home upon realizing that his new bride hates him. Sailing forth on one of his merchant father's ships, his fate becomes intertwined with a mysterious trio: a splendid lady, her evil dwarf servant and a young maiden whom the lady has enslaved. Walter pursues the trio beyond the reaches of his own world to The Golden House, governed by the lady, known only as The Mistress. There he will battle the dwarf, free the maiden, with whom he has fallen in love, and together they will flee the Mistress.


The Land Of The Changing Sun
By: William N. Harben
Harben's The Land of the Changing Sun is a science fiction story telling of the adventures of balloonists who land in the Anarctic and of how they survived. This early period piece makes the usual number of misapprehensions and mistakes. Still it is an enjoyable yarn.


Theodore Roosevelt An Intimate Biography
By: William Roscoe Thayer
William Roscoe Thayer's Theodore Roosevelt An Intimate Biography is one of the better biographies of the most dynamic President of the United States. Roosevelt was a most interesting and powerful man. He published his first book (on the Navies in the War of 1812) when he was a freshman in college. He was a cow puncher and ranch owner while still in his 20s in the west. He pushed through the Panama Canal, understanding that the most powerful weapon that a nation was a mobile navy, a point that is still taken much to heart in the United States.Since The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex are still protected by copyright I can not publish them - though I do recommend them highly. But I can publish this excellent work. It will make an excellent addition to any library.


Captains of the Civil War
By: William Wood
Sixty years ago today the guns that thundered round Fort Sumter began the third and greatest modern civil war fought by English-speaking people. This war was quite as full of politics as were the other two--the War of the American Revolution and that of Puritan and Cavalier. But, though the present Chronicle never ignores the vital correlation's between statesmen and commanders, it is a book of warriors, through and through. -- William Wood


The Joys of Being a Woman
By: Winifred {Margaretta} Kirkland
Kirklnad write in the first essay of this book the following words.
'Sme years ago there appeared in the 'Atlantic' an essay entitled 'The joys of Being a Negro.' With a purpose analogous to that of the author, I am moved to declare the real delights of the apparently downtrodden, and in the face of a bulky literature expressive of pathos and protest, to confess frankly the joys of being a woman. It is a feminist argument accepted as axiomatic that every woman would be a man if she could be, while no man would be a woman if he could help it. Every woman knows this is not fact but falsehood, yet knows also that it is one of those falsehoods on which depends the stability of the universe.
     The idea that every woman is desirous of becoming a man is as comforting to every male as its larger corollary is alarming, namely, that women as a mass have resolved to become men. The former notion expresses man's view of femininity, and is flattering; the latter expresses his view of feminism, and is fearsome. Man's panic, indeed, before the hosts he thinks he sees advancing, has lately become so acute that there is danger of his paralysis. Now his paralysis would defeat not only the purposes of feminism, but also the sole purpose of woman's conduct toward man from Eve's time to ours, a course of which feminism is only a modern and consistent example.'


Terminal Compromise
By: Winn Schwartau
Here is a real techno thriller. From the White House to the Pentagon to the CIA to the National Security Agency and FBI, a complex weaving of fascinating political characters find themselves enmeshed a battle of the New World Order. Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll: Tokyo, Vienna, Paris, Iraq, Iran. It's all here. Copyright ? 1993 Winn Schwartau


The Crossing
By: Winston Churchill
There is a common misconception about this book that many commonly fall into. This book was not written by the Brittish Prime Minister Sir Winston S. Churchill but rather by an american authour named Winston Churchill who was very popular at the turn of the century but now is sadly forgotton. This Winston Churchill wrote several novels at the turn of the century.
The Crossing is a tale of US western expansion, especially the crossing over the mountains into Kentucky, and much of the story is told through the eyes of a rather wide-eyed young man.


Desert Gold
By: Zane Grey
As the tide of revolution rises, Texas Ranger, Richard Gale must rescue a beautiful Spanish woman, Mercedes, from the clutches of the notorious and murderous bandit Rojas and his band of cutthroats. Along the way Gale finds love and uncovers a long-buried secret.


Heritage of the Desert
By: Zane Grey
Published in 1910, this was Zane Grey's first western novel. It received wide and unanimous praise for its powerful portrait of the land and the men and women of the Southwest. Full of action and romance, this timeless novel helped create Grey's reputation as a classic author of the American West.


Riders of the Purple Sage
By: Zane Grey
The novel that set the pattern for the modern Western, Riders of the Purple Sage was first published in 1912, immediately selling over a million copies. In the remote border country of southern Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago by the Mormons. Secrecy, seduction, captivity, and escape: out of these elements Zane Grey fashioned his magnificent classic of the American West.


The Call of the Canyon
By: Zane Grey
Carley Burch, a beautiful young woman must leave her glamorous high society life of New York to follow her fianc?, Glenn Kilbourne, to the rugged Wild West. She braves fierce ruffians, brutal elements and lack of civilization in an attempt to reclaim him. Glenn, suffering from shell shock and the betrayal of his country following World War I, had moved west to recover. He then fell in love with the West and his perspective on life was changed forever. Glen now finds his previous high society life repulsive. Can Carley adapt to the rigorous life of the West? Will she be able to convince Glenn to return to his 'home' in New York? Will she be in time before a rival temptress steals Glenn away?


The Last of the Plainsmen
By: Zane Grey
In a classic western tale, the last of the plainsmen, Buffalo Jones, goes on his final mission to track buffalo, mustang, cougar, and bring them back alive.


The Light of Western Stars
By: Zane Grey
Following her brother to New Mexico's border country, New York debutante Madeline 'Majesty' Hammond falls in love with the land and resists her feelings for rugged cowboy Gene Stewart until he risks his life defending her honor.


The Lone Star Ranger
By: Zane Grey
Set in the 1870's in Texas, Buck Duane kills a man in self-defense and becomes an outlaw. Captain Mac Kelly of the Texas Rangers offeres Buck a full pardon, with a catch. In order to earn it Buck must bring down a gang of deadly rustlers who will stop at nothing. And so the gunfighter hero, Buck, goes after the Chelsedine Gang, and into danger.


The Young Forester
By: Zane Grey
Meet Ken, a young man who seems to be more interested in trees than anything else. In his own words he educates his father, 'First I'd cut and sell all the matured and dead timber. Then I'd thin out the spreading trees that want all the light, and the saplings that grow too close together. I'd get rid of the beetles, and try to check the spread of caterpillars. For trees grow twice as fast if they are not choked or diseased. Then I'd keep planting seeds and shoots in the open places, taking care to favor the species best adapted to the soil, and cutting those that don't grow well. In this way we'll be keeping our forest while doubling its growth and value, and having a yearly income from it.'From this simple statement Ken's future hinges. And he gets his desire, more or less, to spend time with his father's frind Dick Leslie, and to learn the ways of the west as a fire ranger.


To The Last Man
By: Zane Grey
This story is outstanding. Lots of suspense and gunplay, with a hopeless romance injected to keep your mind engaged. This story is especially good as it is loosely based on a true blood feud which happened in Pleasant Valley, a town in the Tonto Basin area of Arizona. Therefore, you can visit the site, see where Zane set his novel, and know that while Grey's may have been a fictional account, a feud did happen, right where you are standing. The town is now called Young, by the way, to get rid of the stigma associated with the Pleasant Valley War. The account of the actual feud (available at the Tonto Basin Historical Center), and several key elements in Grey's novel are true. There was only one active participant who survived the feud, and the bit about the battle pausing so the ladies could bury their dead husbands to keep hogs from eating the corpses actually happened.
Many thanks to an unknown reviewer


Wildfire
By: Zane Grey
Saving the life of a man who was injured while capturing a wild horse, Lucy Bostil finds herself the object of Lin Slone's affections, until a rival for the lady's heart and Slone's horse seeks to destroy their happiness.


Old Indian Legends
By: Zitkala-Sa
These Native American (Indian) legends and tales are some of the most enchanting one can read. Yet as they can be an insight into the soul of this once great and widespread peoples they can also reveal truths about them and about ourselves. As with Grimms fairy tales; morals will be found in most of these stories. You may be surprised at what you find in this little book. And you will enjoy what you find.