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  The Great Gatsby

  F Scott itzgerald

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  The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.The novel was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with a socialite, and by parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922. Following a move to the French Riviera, he completed a rough draft in 1924. After submitting the draft to editor Maxwell Perkins, the editor persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. Despite being happy with the content of the text after revision, Fitzgerald was ambivalent about the book's title and considered a variety of alternatives. The final title that he was documented to have desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue. Fitzgerald was, however, happy with painter Francis Cugat's final cover design.After its publication by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews from literary critics who believed that it did not hold up to Fitzgerald's previous writing and thus signaled the end of the author's literary achievements. As such, Gatsby sold poorly, and although Fitzgerald believed that negative criticisms of the novel did not interpret his work correctly, when the author died in 1940 he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, during World War II the novel faced a critical and scholarly re-examination, and it soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a focus of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades.Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. The novel was most recently adapted to film in 2013 by director Baz Luhrmann, while modern scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited wealth compared to those who are self-made, race, environmentalism, and its cynical attitude towards the American dream. As with other works by Fitzgerald, criticisms include allegations of antisemitism. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.

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  Through the Looking Glass

  Lewis Carroll

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  Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel by Lewis Carroll and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic (running helps you remain stationary, walking away from something brings you towards it, chessmen are alive, nursery rhyme characters exist, etc) Through the Looking-Glass includes such verses as "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter", and the episode involving Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

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  Eugenie Grandet

  Honoré de Balzac, Sylvia Raphael

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  Hailed as the father of the naturalist novel, French author and playwright Honoré de Balzac left a legacy of treasured literary works that include Père Goriot and Cousin Bette. The daughter of a wealthy but miserly man, Eugénie Grandet falls in love with her penniless cousin, Charles. The two plan to marry, but at the behest of her father, Charles must first go overseas to make his fortune. Returning years later, Charles calls off the engagement, leaving Eugénie heartbroken and vengeful.

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  Heaven's My Destination - A Novel

  Thornton Wilder

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  "One of the most American books ever written. . . . Thornton Wilder's best, and most unexpected, book." (Wilfrid Sheed) 
  Meet George Marvin Brush, one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois—and into the soul of America itself. 
  Copyright (c) 1934 by the Wilder Family L.L.C. Foreword copyright (c) 2003 by J. D. McClatchy. Afterword copyright (c) 2003 by Tappan Wilder.

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  A Letter to a Hindu

  Leo Tolstoy

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  A Letter to a Hindu was written in 1908 by Leo Tolstoy to Tarak Nath Das, an Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. The letter was translated and reprinted by Mohandas Gandhi, who used the ideas of love revealed through non-violent resistance in his own ideological teachings. Non-violent resistance was a principle of Tolstoy's christian belief.

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  Mansfield Park

  Jane Austen

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  We have all been more or less to blame ... every one of us, excepting Fanny' Taken from the poverty of her parents' home, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with only her cousin Edmund as an ally. When Fanny's uncle is absent in Antigua, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive in the neighbourhood, bringing with them London glamour and a reckless taste for flirtation. As her female cousins vie for Henry's attention, and even Edmund falls for Mary's dazzling charms, only Fanny remains doubtful about the Crawfords' influence and finds herself more isolated than ever. A subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, Mansfield Park is one of Jane Austen's most profound works

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