Publisher: Charles River Editors
Herman Melville was one of the greatest writers during the American Renaissance. Melville’s unique style helped produce classics in many different genres. This edition of The Fiddler includes a table of contents.
Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy's second novel, was published in 1872, became the first of his great series of Wessex novels. The book subtitled "A Rural Painting of the Dutch School" tells the endearing tale of a group of church musicians who accompany the hymns at the local Mellstock parish choir and we follow the fortunes of one its member, Dick Dewy, who falls in love with the new school mistress, Fancy Day. Another element of the book is the battle between the musicians of the 'Quire' and the local vicar, Parson Maybold, who installs a church organ. This battle illustrates the developing technology being introduced in the Victorian era and its threat to traditional country ways.Show book
The Fisherman and his Soul is a fairy tale from Oscar Wilde. The protagonist, a young Fisherman, finds a Mermaid and wants nothing more than to marry her, but he cannot, for one cannot live underwater if one has a soul. He goes to his priest, but the priest tells him his soul is his most precious possession, and the soulless mermen are lost. He tries to sell it to merchants, who tell him it is not worth anything. He goes to a witch, who tells him his soul is his shadow, and says how it can be cut away with a viper-skin knife after he dances with her. After cutting his shadow and soul free from his body, his Soul tells him that the world is cruel and asks to take with him his heart to allay his fears. The Fisherman, however, refuses to give his Soul his heart, because his love needs it, and he sends the Soul away and joins his Mermaid under the sea…Show book
This story takes place in the ancient valley of Nis, in vegetation-covered stone ruins described by Lovecraft in great detail. These crumbling blocks of monolithic stone now serve only for grey toads and snakes to nest under. Interspersed in the ruins are large trees that are home to little apes. Through the bottom of this valley runs the great, slimy red river called Than. "Memory" involves only two characters: "the Genie that haunts the moonbeams" and "the Daemon of the Valley". The Genie inquires of the Daemon who it was that long ago placed the stones that were now the desolate ruin near the river Than. The Daemon replies that he remembers the name of the creatures "clearly," but only because their name rhymed with that of the river: they were called Man. He also remembers "dimly" that they appeared like the small apes that now leap through the ruins. The Genie flies back to his moonbeams, and the Daemon turns to regard an ape in silent contemplation.Show book
The action starts and ends on the River Floss at Dorlcote Mill, home to the Tullivers for generations. But, for all the mill's beauty, Maggie Tulliver, the heroine, finds family life intolerably narrow. The Tullivers, for so long solidly prosperous, are soon beset by financial problems, the result of Mr Tulliver's misguided lawsuit and his feud with Wakem. Against this troubled background, Maggie's well-meaning attempts to reconcile her pursuit of love and happiness with her sense of duty to her family lead to tragedy.Show book
In 1894, while enduring a period of personal turbulence, Mark Twain penned this fascinating tale set in the idyllic river community of his childhood. Alternating between comedy and tragedy, irony and gravity, Pudd’nhead Wilson mirrors much of the social and moral unrest of the time. When a mulatto slave woman switches her own infant with the look-alike son of a wealthy merchant, it takes Pudd’nhead Wilson, the town eccentric, to put things right again.Show book
‘Smile’ is one of Lawrence's shorter pieces, a thumbnail sketch of an idea. A man is relieved that his wife is dead and struggles to hide his relief when confronted with his wife's body. The relief breaks out in a smile which he struggles to excuse. How much better it would have been, Lawrence seems to be saying, if he had just laughed out loud!Show book
