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  The Sea-Hawk

  Rafael Sabatini

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  Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman who helped defeat the Spanish Armada, is betrayed by his jealous half-brother. When the ship he is on is captured by the Spanish, he is made a galley slave. Freed from slavery by Barbary pirates, he joins up with them and becomes a follower of Islam and the scourge of European ships. Taking the name "Sakr-el-Bahr," or "The Hawk of the Sea," he swears vengeance against his brother. It is this desire for revenge that brings him back to the British shores where he is a wanted man.

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  The Two Pilgrims

  Leo Tolstoy

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  eo Tolstoy's story Two Old Men tells the tale of two men, Efim and Elisha, who decide that before they die they must make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After months of planning, they collect what they will need and begin to walk. After a long day on the road, they come to a village that seems deserted. No one is about, and seeing a small hut, they look in to see what has happened. They enter its darkness and smell death. As their eyes adjust to the lack of light, they see bodies on beds. With trepidation they come close, and see that the people are still alive, but barely.Elisha wants to stay and help. He encourages his companion to go on beyond the village, "And I will catch up with you." But as Elisha opens doors and windows, and offers them food and drink, he begins to see that their needs are more complex than he first imagined—and that it is not only them, but the whole village that is suffering. He finds his friend and tells Efim that he wants to stay longer, encouraging him to make his way on to Jerusalem. "I will find you," he says.So one man stays in the village, helping the villagers find their way again to happiness and health, never going on to Jerusalem, eventually returning home; the other man makes his way to Jerusalem. He keeps waiting for his friend who never comes, so before long he returns home to Russia—again, walking across a continent. At one point along the way, he comes to a village that seems strangely familiar to him. And then he realizes that it is where he left his friend—but everything seems very different now. Men and women, older and younger, are busy at work and play; animals are healthy, and the crops are growing, and so he asks, "What has happened?" In simple innocence, the villagers explain that a man stopped along the way and gave them back their life.Possible Preaching Angle: The story concludes with both men finally at home, telling the stories of their pilgrimages. Tolstoy has no desire to tell a black-and-white story, with a good man and a bad man; it is more nuanced than that, as life is. The last lines tell of their joy in meeting together again. But, clearly, one man paid attention to the needs around him. His pilgrimage became saving the village.What is your pilgrimage?

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  The Man Within

  Graham Greene

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  "Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature . . ." —John le Carré Graham Greene's first published novel tells the story of Andrews, a young man who has betrayed his fellow smugglers and fears their vengeance. Fleeing from them, with no hope of pity or salvation, he takes refuge in the house of a young woman, also alone in the world. Elizabeth persuades him to give evidence against his accomplices in court, but neither she nor Andrews is aware that to both criminals and authority, treachery is as great a crime as smuggling. The first step in a brilliant career, The Man Within offers a foretaste of Green's recurring themes of religion, the individual's struggles against cynicism, and the indifferent forces of a hostile world.

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  A Funny Man's Dream

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  Dostoyevsky was never shy to play with the issues of human mind in his work. A funny man's dream is one of his shorter pieces that, nevertheless, lacks none of the profundity or the mind-bending power of his larger works.

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  Daisy Miller

  Henry James

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  "Daisy Miller" is a novella written by Henry James, first published in 1878. The story is set in the late 19th century and revolves around the experiences of a young and unconventional American woman named Daisy Miller as she travels in Europe. The novella explores themes of social class, cultural clash, and the consequences of defying societal norms.

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  Stella Dallas

  Olive Higgins Prouty

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  This pulp classic of motherhood and money introduced the immortal character portrayed on film by Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Midler—“a feminist gem” (Michael Bronski).   An ambitious woman from working-class roots, Stella sets her sights on marrying rich—and hits a bullseye. But her unshakable crudeness becomes too much for her husband. When he leaves her, she keeps their daughter Laurel. And now Stella sets her sights one again—this time, on giving her daughter the life she could never achieve for herself.   Originally published in 1923, this epic tale inspired the first radio soap opera, a Broadway play, and multiple films, including the Oscar-nominated 1937 movie starring Barbara Stanwyck and the 1990 movie Stella starring Bette Midler. Stella Dallas is a razor-sharp critique of our societal obsession with the judgment of mothers, offering cultural commentary that is still shockingly relevant nearly one hundred years after its initial publication.

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