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Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was hardly a great admirer of Jane Austen, so he might not have regarded the comparison as flattering. In fact, James was not a great fan of Washington Square itself. He tried to read it over for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction (1907-1909) but found that he couldn't, and the novel was not included. Other readers, though, have sufficiently enjoyed the book to make it one of the more popular works of the Jamesian canon....

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Literature

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Still one of the most radical novels of the 20th Century, James Joyce's Ulysses is considered to have ushered in the era of the modern novel. Loosely based on Homer's Odyssey, the book follows Leopold Bloom and a number of other characters through an ordinary day, twenty four hours, in Dublin, on June 16, 1904. The text is dense and difficult, but perfectly suited to an oral reading, filled with language tricks, puns and jokes, stream of consciousness, and bawdiness. NOTE: Because of the nature of this project, there was a bending of usual procedures: pub-like background noise was encouraged, as well as group readings; and no editing was required, so in places there may be some accidental variation from the original text ... Listener be warned! (Summary by Hugh McGuire)...

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Literature

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The first significant published short story of French author Guy de Maupassant, and generally acknowledged as his greatest work, Ball-of-Fat (French title: Boule de Suif) is the touching story of an interrupted coach ride from Rouen to Le Havre during which occurs the corruption of a principled prostitute by immoral and hypocritical members of the upper class. The story is set during the occupation of Rouen at the time of the Franco-Prussian War.(Summary by Michael Thomas Robinson)...

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Literature

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On a journey to Tuscany with her young friend and traveling companion Caroline Abbott, widowed Lilia Herriton falls in love with both Italy and a handsome Italian much younger than herself, and decides to stay. Furious, her dead husband's family send Lilia's brother-in-law to Italy to prevent a misalliance, but he arrives too late. Lilia marries the Italian and in due course becomes pregnant again. When she dies giving birth to her child, the Herritons consider it both their right and their duty to travel to Monteriano to obtain custody of the infant so that he can be raised as an Englishman. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished. Hardy's growing taste for tragedy is also evident in the novel. It first appeared, anonymously, as a monthly magazine serial, where it gained a wide readership and critical acclaim. According to Virginia Woolf, The subject was right; the method was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the sombre reflective man, the man of learning, all enlisted to produce a book which . . . must hold its place among the great English novels. The book is often regarded as an early piece of feminist literature, since it features an independent woman with the courage to defy convention by running a farm herself. Although Bathsheba's passionate nature leads her into serious errors of judgment, Hardy endows her with sufficient resilience, intelligence, and good luck to overcome her youthful folly....

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Literature

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Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre (originally published under Brontë's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–1812, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against a backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry....

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Literature

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A thoroughly representative selection of the poetry of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. Rochester (1647–1680) was among the worst (best?) of the Restoration rakes, and also one of the period’s best satirists employing a direct language rife with plenty of four-letter words and an obsessive indulgence of the most vulgar vernacular used on behalf of satirical shredding, scatological humor, and sexual candor. Volume 7 in The Reader's Library Series. ISBN: 978-1-932023-49-7 https://www.facebook.com/williamralpheditions...

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A Rodomontade on His Cruel Mistress Trust not that thing called woman: she is worse Than all ingredients crammed into a curse. Were she but ugly, peevish, proud, a whore, Poxed, painted, perjured, so she were no more, I could forgive her, and connive at this, Alleging still she but a woman is. But she is worse: in time she will forestall The Devil, and be the damning of us all....

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Contents Introduction A Pastoral Dialogue between Alexis and Strephon A Dialogue between Strephon and Daphne Song (Give Me Leave to Rail at You...) Song (Insulting Beauty, You Misspend...) Song (My Dear Mistress Has a Heart...) Woman's Honour (A Song) Song (To This Moment a Rebel...) Written in a Lady's Prayer Book The Discovery The Advice Under King Charles II's Picture The Platonic Lady Song (Phillis, Be Gentler, I Advise...) Epistle To Love The Imperfect Enjoyment A Ramble in St. James's Park On the Women about Town Song (Quoth the Duchess of Cleveland...) Song (Love a Woman? You’re an Ass!...) Upon His Drinking Bowl Grecian Kindness Signior Dildo A Satire on Charles II Tunbridge Wells Upon His Leaving His Mistress Against Constancy To a Lady, in a Letter Song (Leave This Gaudy Gilded Stage...) The Fall The Mistress (A Song) Song (Absent from Thee I Languish Still...) A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover Song (All My Past Life Is Mine No More...) A Satire against Reason and Mankind A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country The Disabled Debauchee Upon Nothing A...

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A complete collection of the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was born on January 19th in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, and died in his adopted home of Baltimore, Maryland on October 7th, 1849, making him the first American writer in this series. The critical estimation of Poe’s work has increased dramatically over the course of my lifetime, which has been satisfying to observe, as he was for me—as I believe for so many lovers of literature—an early favorite, particularly because of his verse, which is rich with sonic texture and gothic subject matter: insanity, darkness, ghosts, death, etc. It is also quite manageable to read in its entirety at 75 poems depending on how many of those of questionable authorship or in various stages of completion one is willing to include in the official oeuvre. (In fact, it has been some time since I’ve heard the old familiar slight that his popularity in France during the 19th century was perhaps due to his writing gaining something of substance from Charles Baudelaire’s translations.) While perhaps not quite as dramatically prescient in new utterance, form or philosophical depth as Walt Whitman ...

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Annabel Lee It was many and many a year ago,     In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know     By the name of Annabel Lee;— And this maiden she lived with no other thought     Than to love and be loved by me. She was a child and I was a child,     In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love—     I and my Annabel Lee— With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven     Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago,     In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud by night     Chilling my Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsmen came     And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre     In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,     Went envying her and me:— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,     In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling     And killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love     Of those who were older than we—     Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in Heaven above,     Nor the de...

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Contents Introduction Poetry Oh, Tempora! Oh, Mores! To Margaret To Octavia Tamerlane Song (I Saw Thee on Thy Bridal Day...) Dreams Spirits of the Dead Evening Star Imitation Stanzas (In Youth I Have Known One...) A Dream "The Happiest Day—The Happiest Hour" The Lake: To——— To——— (I Heed Not That My Earthly Lot...) Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius Sonnet: To Science Al Aaraaf Romance To——— (Should My Early Life Seem...) To——— (The Bowers Whereat, in Dreams, I See...) To the River——— Fairy Land Alone To Isaac Lea Elizabeth Acrostic Lines on Joe Locke Introduction Fairy Land II To Helen (Helen, Thy Beauty Is to Me...) Israfel The Sleeper The Valley of Unrest The City in the Sea A Pæn To One in Paradise Hymn An Enigma Serenade To——— (Sleep On, Sleep On, Another Hour...) The Coliseum Fanny To Frances S. Osgood To F——— To Mary May Queen Ode Bridal Ballad Sonnet: To Zante The Haunted Palace Sonnet: Silence The Conqueror Worm Lenore Dream-Land Impromptu: To Kate Carol Eulalie Epigram for Wall Street The Raven To——— (I Would Not Lord It O’er Thy Heart...) The Divine Right ...

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Excerpt: The Poems of George Meredith by George Meredith.

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Contents CHILLIANWALLAH..................................................................................................................... 14 THE DOE: A FRAGMENT........................................................................................................... 15 BEAUTY ROHTRAUT .................................................................................................................. 19 THE OLIVE BRANCH .................................................................................................................. 20 SONG .............................................................................................................................................. 23 THE WILD ROSE AND THE SNOWDROP ............................................................................. 24 THE DEATH OF WINTER .......................................................................................................... 25 SONG .............................................................................................................................................. 26 JOHN LACKLAND ....................................................

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Excerpt: ?Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing or in Judging ill, But, of the two, less dang?rous is th? Offence, To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense: Some few in that, but Numbers err in this, Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss; A Fool might once himself alone expose, Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose....

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Excerpt: The French Revolution. A History (Volume Two).

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Contents VOLUME II.?THE CONSTITUTION ...................................................................................................................... 6 BOOK 2.I. THE FEAST OF PIKES ............................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2.1.I. In the Tuileries. ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2.1.II. In the Salle de Manege. ..................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2.1.III. The Muster....................................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 2.1.IV. Journalism. ........................................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 2.1.V. Clubbism. ............................................................................................................................................ 31 Ch...

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Excerpt: The ancient and famous metropolis of the North sits overlooking a windy estuary from the slope and summit of three hills. No situation could be more commanding for the head city of a kingdom; none better chosen for noble prospects. From her tall precipice and terraced gardens she looks far and wide on the sea and broad champaigns. To the east you may catch at sunset the spark of the May lighthouse, where the Firth expands into the German Ocean; and away to the west, over all the carse of Stirling, you can see the first snows upon Ben Ledi....

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Excerpt: Good Comedies are such rare productions, that notwithstanding the wealth of our literature in the Comic element, it would not occupy us long to run over the English list. If they are brought to the test I shall propose, very reputable Comedies will be found unworthy of their station, like the ladies of Arthur?s Court when they were reduced to the ordeal of the mantle....

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Excerpt: Dear Baron, you have taken so warm an interest in my long, vast ?History of French Manners in the Nineteenth Century,? you have given me so much encouragement to persevere with my work, that you have given me a right to associate your name with some portion of it. Are you not one of the most important representatives of conscientious, studious Germany?...

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Excerpt: Miss Sarah Jack, of Spanish Town, Jamaica by Anthony Trollope.

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De Kleine Johannes is een sprookje, waarin de ontwikkeling van kind tot volwassene en de worsteling met de levensraadsels centraal staan. We volgen het opgroeien van de kleine Johannes of in realiteit de schrijver zelf. Short summary in English: This book is a fairytale, which represents the growing up of the author from a small boy to an adult....

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Fiction, Literature

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How Sir Mordred presumed and took on him to be King of England, and would have married the queen, his father?s wife As Sir Mordred was ruler of all England, he did do make letters as though that they came from beyond the sea, and the letters specified that King Arthur was slain in battle with Sir Launcelot. Wherefore Sir Mordred made a parliament, and called the lords together, and there he made them to choose him king; and so was he crowned at Canterbury, and held a feast there fifteen days; and afterward he drew him unto Winchester, and there he took the Queen Guenever, and said plainly that he would wed her which was his uncle?s wife and his father?s wife....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. It had occurred to her early that in her position-- that of a young person spending, in framed and wired confinement, the life of a guinea-pig or a magpie-- she should know a great many persons without their recognizing the acquaintance. That made it an emotion the more lively--though singularly rare and always, even then, with opportunity still very much smothered--to see any one come in whom she knew outside, as she called it, any one who could add anything to the meanness of her function. Her function was to sit there with two young men--the other telegraphist and the counter-clerk; to mind the ?sounder,? which was always going, to dole out stamps and postal-orders, weigh letters, answer stupid questions, give difficult change and, more than anything else, count words as numberless as the sands of the sea, the words of the telegrams thrust, from morning to night, through the gap left in the high lattice, across the encumbered shelf that her forearm ached with rubbing. This transparent screen fenced out or fenced in, according to the side of the narrow counter on which the human lot was cast, the duskiest corne...

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Excerpt: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: Volume One, with Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by the Rev. George Gilfillan.

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Contents LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE.................................................................................................................................. 6 PREFACE2................................................................................................................................................................. 25 VARIATIONS IN THE AUTHOR?S MANUSCRIPT PREFACE. ........................................................................ 31 PASTORALS, WITH A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCIV...... 32 SPRING ...................................................................................................................................................................... 37 SUMMER ................................................................................................................................................................... 41 AUTUMN ................................................................................................................................................................... 44 WINTER .............................................................................

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Excerpt: The French Revolution. (INDEX)

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INDEX ABBAYE, massacres, Jourgniac, Sicard, and Maton?s account of. ACCEPTATION, grande, by Louis XVI. AGOUST, Captain d?, seizes two Parlementeers. AIGUILLON, d?, at Quiberon, account of, in favour, at death of Louis XV. AINTRIGUES, Count d?. ALTAR of Fatherland in Champ-de-Mars, scene at, christening at....