Jack London's novels and ruggedly individual life seemed to embody American hopes, frustrations, and romantic longings in the turbulent first years of the twentieth century, years infused with the wonder and excitement of great technological and historic change. The author's restless spirit, taste for a life of excitement, and probing mind led him on a series of hard-edged adventures from the Klondike to the South Seas. Out of these sometimes harrowing experiences — and his...
Begun as an ambitious project by the versatile English courtier, diplomat, philosopher, and author Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, “The Canterbury Tales” follows a group of people on their pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Saint Thomas á Becket. The Prologue introduces all of the pilgrims in great detail, and through these descriptions Chaucer provides the entire spectrum of social classes and professions of his time. When the group stops at an inn and the innkeeper introduces a competition...
Written by the Indian philosopher Vatsyayana sometime between the 4th century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., “The Kama Sutra” is perhaps the world’s most famous book ever written on love and sexual desire. “Kama” is one of the four Hindu goals of human life and is translated as love, including sexual desire and romantic love. “Sutra” in this context means aphorisms, or rules and lessons, on the subject of love. “The Kama Sutra” has become synonymous with its instructions on sexual positions, but...
Written in just fifty-two days in 1839, “The Charterhouse of Parma” has since become known as one of Stendhal’s finest works. Evidence of haste is infrequently apparent in this remarkable story, which follows the eventful life of the young Italian nobleman Fabrizio del Dongo. From his childhood in the family castle by Lake Como to the battlefields of Waterloo, Fabrizio proves himself charmingly headstrong and painfully naïve. Upon returning injured to Italy, the young man begins to recover and...
Written in just fifty-two days in the year 1839, «The Charterhouse of Parma» has since become known as Stendhal's finest work. Evidence of haste is infrequently apparent in this remarkable story, which follows the eventful life of the young Italian nobleman Fabrizio del Dongo. From his childhood in the family castle by Lake Como to the battlefields of Waterloo, Fabrizio proves himself charmingly headstrong and painfully naïve. Upon returning injured to Italy, the young man begins to recover...
First published in 1653, Izaak Walton’s “The Compleat Angler” is a classic and much-loved treatise on the art of fishing. Immediately popular after its publication, “The Compleat Angler” was reprinted and updated numerous times by Walton. Written as a conversation between the fictional characters of the experienced angler Piscator and his student Viator, which was changed to a hunter named Venator in later editions, the treatise is part an instructional manual on how to catch and eat fish and...
One of Alexandre Dumas’ most beloved novels and one of the best-selling works of its day, “The Count of Monte Cristo” is an expansive adventure novel with a huge cast of characters, all revolving around the young sailor Edmond Dantès. Wrongfully accused of aiding the exiled Napoleon, Dantès is arrested on the day of his wedding and imprisoned on the island prison, Chateau d’If. He survives years of cramped confinement and eventually befriends another prisoner, an Italian who knows the location...
The ultimate story of escape to riches, revenge and redemption by ‘the Napoleon of storytellers’.Falsely accused of treason, Edmond Dantes is arrested on his wedding night and imprisoned in the grim island fortress of Chateau d’If. After staging a dramatic escape he sets out to discover the fabuouls treasure on the island of Monte Cristo and uses it to exact revenge on those responsible for his incarceration.The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape and triumphant revenge moves at...
First serialized in “The Atlantic Monthly” and then published as a novel in 1896, Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The Country of the Pointed Firs” is the story of a female writer seeking isolation and inspiration for her writing in the small coastal New England town of Dunnet Landing in the late 1800’s. Originally from Boston and drawn back to the quiet town after a visit years earlier, the narrator is at first frustrated by the constant interruptions of the small village’s inhabitants and seeks out the...