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Excerpt: Le Morte Darthur -- Glossary to volume one -- by Sir Thomas Malory.

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Excerpt: Here are not many people three-fourths and as it is desirable that a story-teller and a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither to young people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people: little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down again ? there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church. I don?t mean at sermon- time in warm weather (when the thing has actually been done, once or twice), but in the night, and alone....

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A classic ghost story of a haunted house, and the haunted man who lives in it.

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Horror/Ghost stories

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Excerpt: Louis Lambert was born at Montoire, a little town in the Vendomois, where his father owned a tannery of no great magnitude, and intended that his son should succeed him; but his precocious bent for study modified the paternal decision. For, indeed, the tanner and his wife adored Louis, their only child, and never contradicted him in anything....

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Excerpt: The Merry Wives of Windsor; Actus Primus -- Scena Prima -- Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, Sir Hugh Evans, Master Page, Falstoffe, Bardolph, Nym, Pistoll, Anne Page, Mistresse Ford, Mistresse Page, Simple. Shallow. Sir Hugh, perswade me not: I will make a Star-Chamber matter of it, if hee were twenty Sir John Falstoffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow Esquire....

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Table of Contents: The Merry Wiues of Windsor, 1 -- Actus primus, Scena prima., 1 -- Scena Secunda., 7 -- Scena Tertia., 7 -- Scoena Quarta., 10 -- Actus Secundus. Scoena Prima., 13 -- Scoena Secunda., 18 -- Scena Tertia., 24 -- Actus Tertius. Scoena Prima., 26 -- Scena Secunda., 29 -- Scena Tertia., 31 -- Scoena Quarta., 35 -- Scena Quinta., 38 -- Actus Quartus. Scoena Prima., 41 -- Scena Secunda., 43 -- Scena Tertia., 47 -- Scena Quarta., 48 -- Scena Quinta., 50 -- Scena Sexta., 53 -- Actus Quintus. Scoena Prima., 54 -- Scena Secunda., 55 -- Scena Tertia., 55 -- Scena Quarta., 56 -- Scena Quinta., 56...

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Excerpt: Volumes, almost libraries, have been written about Balzac; and perhaps of very few writers, putting aside the three or four greatest of all, is it so difficult to select one or a few short phrases which will in any way denote them, much more sum them up. Yet the five words quoted above, which come from an early letter to his sister when as yet he had not ?found his way,? characterize him, I think, better than at least some of the volumes I have read about him, and supply, when they are properly understood, the most valuable of all keys and companions for his comprehension....

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Contents HONORE DE BALZAC ................................................................................................................... 4 APPENDIX...................................................................................................................................... 32 THE BALZAC PLAN OF THE COMEDIE HUMAINE ............................................................ 32 Comedie Humaine ............................................................................................................................ 33 Author?s Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 43...

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First published in 1881, Eight Hundred Miles on the Amazon is an adventure novel in two parts by Jules Verne, having elements of codes and cryptography. Unlike many of his other stories, it is not a work of science fiction. Rather, it describes a voyage down the Amazon River on a large raft, or jangada). Many aspects of the raft, scenery, and journey are described in detail. - Written by not.a.moose, based (exclusively) on information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Hundred_Leagues_on_the_Amazon...

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Adventure

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Buck Duane, son of a famous gunfighter, falls prey to the old problem - called out by a cowboy who wants to make trouble, Duane kills him and then must ride off to the lawless country near the Neuces River to escape being arrested and perhaps, hanged. His brief encounter with deadly gunplay has ignited a deep urging to repeat the adrenaline rush but is tempered by ghosts that haunt his sleep. He only dares to release his inner demon when he is taking down an outlaw who is particularly known for his brutality. He develops a reputation for killing the most notorious Texas outlaws, which draws an unexpected interest: a captain of the Texas Rangers offers him a pardon and a ranger's badge if he will infiltrate the gang of the shadowy figure known as Cheseldine who wields vast power in West Texas, and make it possible for the Rangers to break the gang's hold on the region's towns. Duane accepts, never guessing in his wildest nightmares that he would sniff out this Cheseldine, his hideouts, his lieutenants... and fall in love with his daughter! (Summary by Mark F. Smith)...

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Westerns, Adventure

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Excerpt: The Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens.

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The story told in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel, A Little Princess , was first written as a serialized novella, Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s , and published in St. Nicholas Magazine , in 1888. It tells the story of Sara Crewe, an intelligent, wealthy, young girl at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Sara’s fortunes change when her father dies, and she goes from being a show pupil and parlor boarder at the school to a drudge, but eventually she finds happiness and a home again. (Summary by Treesh)...

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Children

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The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge is historical fiction based on the the life of Richard, Duke of Normandy. He assumes the title of Duke at only 8 years of age, after his father is murdered. The story first appeared in her magazine, The Monthly Packet, as a serial. (summary by Laura Caldwell)...

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Historical Fiction, Children

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Genesis (Greek: birth, origin) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible, and the first of five books of the Pentateuch or Torah. It recounts the world from creation to the descent of the children of Israel into Egypt, and contains some of the best-known accounts of the Old Testament, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the biblical Patriarchs. (From Wikipedia, modified by Sam Stinson)...

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Religion

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It was before the Idiot's marriage, and in the days when he was nothing more than a plain boarder in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog's High-class Home for Single Gentlemen, that he put what the School-master termed his alleged mind on plans for the amelioration of the condition of the civilized. This humorous story by the editor of Puck magazine describes how the Idiot sets out to improve the lot of civilized man through his inventions - the lot of barbarian man already being well tended to by missionaries and other do-gooders. (Introduction by peac) CAST: Narrator - peac The Idiot - Algy Pug Mr. Pedagog(aka The Schoolmaster) - Adam Bratcher Mrs. Smithers Pedagog - TriciaG The Doctor - Raken The Bibliomaiac - Availle Mr. Poet - Matthew Reece Mr. Whitechoker(aka The Minister) - Aidan Brack The Genial Old Gentleman who occasionally imbibed - om123 Edited by - peac...

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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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A collection of children's alphabet rhymes including Footsteps On the Road to Learning - a short text from 1850 which teaches children the English alphabet in rime--so that a child may not become a dunce! The Anti Slavery Alphabet - a book prepared to encourage young children to speak against the institution of slavery in 19th century United States. The method used is an alphabetical listing of the evils of slavery. The Peter Pan Alphabet and The Alphabet of Celebrities - Oliver Herford's teaching guides to the English alphabet--using Peter Pan and famous names! (Summary by Sam Stinson and Wikipedia)...

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Children, Instruction, Poetry

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Henry Louis H. L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English. Known as the Sage of Baltimore, he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Mencken is perhaps best remembered today for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States, and for his satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he named the Monkey trial....

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Jude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. Its hero Jude Fawley is a lower-class young man who dreams of becoming a scholar. The two other main characters are his earthy wife, Arabella, and his intellectual cousin, Sue. Themes include class, scholarship, religion, marriage, and the modernization of thought and society. (from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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Excerpt: A young Irish gentleman of the numerous clan O?Donnells, and a Patrick, hardly a distinction of him until we know him, had bound himself, by purchase of a railway-ticket, to travel direct to the borders of North Wales, on a visit to a notable landowner of those marches, the Squire Adister, whose family-seat was where the hills begin to lift and spy into the heart of black mountains. Examining his ticket with an apparent curiosity, the son of a greener island debated whether it would not be better for him to follow his inclinations, now that he had gone so far as to pay for the journey, and stay. But his inclinations were also subject to question, upon his considering that he had expended pounds English for the privilege of making the journey in this very train....

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Elizabeth Gaskell's last novel was serialized in Cornhill Magazine from 1864 to 1866, and completed by her editor posthumously. It looks at English life in the 1830s through the experiences of Molly Gibson, the daughter of a widowed doctor growing up in the provincial town of Hollingford. When Mr. Gibson decides to marry again, Molly is forced to contend with a pretentious stepmother, but consoled by a close friendship with Cynthia, her new stepsister. The girls' relations with the local residents, particularly the Squire of Hamley Hall and his family, make for incidents comic, romantic, and tragic, by turns. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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Preface: To explain the present undertaking, it should be mentioned that a history of Hursley and North Baddesley was compiled by the Reverend John Marsh, Curate of Hursley, in the year 1808. It was well and carefully done, with a considerable amount of antiquarian knowledge. It reached a second edition, and a good deal of it was used in Sketches of Hampshire, by John Duthy, Esq. An interleaved copy received many annotations from members of the Heathcote family. There was a proposal that it should be re-edited, but ninety years could not but make a great difference in these days of progress, so that not only had the narrative to be brought up to date, but further investigations into the past brought facts to light which had been unknown to Mr. Marsh....