Publisher: Jules verne
In the year of 189-, an international auction is organized to define the sovereign rights to the part of the Arctic extending from the 84th parallel, the highest yet reached by man, to the North Pole. Several countries send their official delegates, but the auction is won by a representative from an anonymous United States buyer.
In the year 1792, Sir Percy and Lady Marguerite Blakeney are the darlings of British society-he is known as one of the wealthiest men in England and a dimwit; she is French, a stunning former actress, and "the cleverest woman in Europe"-and they find themselves at the center of a deadly political intrigue. The Reign of Terror controls France, and every day aristocrats in Paris fall victim to Madame la Guillotine. Only one man can rescue them-the Scarlet Pimpernel, a master of disguise who leaves a calling card bearing only a signature red flower. As the fascinating connection between the Blakeneys and this mysterious hero is revealed, they are forced to choose between love and loyalty in order to avoid the French agent Chauvelin, who relentlessly hunts the Scarlet Pimpernel.The Scarlet Pimpernel is the best-known novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, a prolific author of popular fiction and plays. First published in 1905, it pioneered the tale of the masked avenger and paved the way for such future enigmatic swashbucklers as Zorro and the Lone Ranger. Repeatedly adapted for stage and screen-including as a successful Broadway musical-The Scarlet Pimpernel is a relevant and enormously entertaining tale of survival and pluck during times of widespread fear, hypocrisy, and corruption.Show book
This is Mark Twain's imaginative series of diary entries by Adam and Eve. At first, Adam is puzzled by this new arrival, Eve, in the garden, and he is suspicious of her disturbing appetite for fruit. Eve, believing herself to be some sort of experiment, is curious about another experiment in the garden, perhaps some sort of reptile or possibly architecture. Eve gives names to everything, much to Adam's annoyance. He tries to ignore her, so she seeks companionship among the animals particularly with a certain snake. Adam and Eve grow to love each other and, in the end, an elderly Adam is filled with a realization of that love as he stands at Eve's grave.Show book
From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate "poor relation." Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.Written several years after the early manuscripts that eventually became Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park retains Jane Austen's familiar compassion and humor but offers a far more complex exploration of moral choices and their emotional consequences.Show book
Martin is an old cobbler with a good trade, but has had a hard life. His soul is now embittered against God. When he hears a mysterious voice calling him in the middle of the night, his soul seems to lighten and awake to answer the call.Show book
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the leading detective writer of the late nineteenth century. A physician by profession, he soon found writing to be more profitable that medical practice and rapidly gained fame with his tales of the master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. In The Red-Headed League, Holmes is faced with a bizarre puzzle. His client, a red haired pawnbroker, had answered an odd advertisement from an organisation designed to promote the interests of red haired men. He is offered a highly paid job, which involves sitting in an office in fleet street between the hours of ten and two every day, copying out texts from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. One morning he arrives at the office to find a notice on the door announcing that the Red Headed League has been dissolved. His own enquiries lead to nothing, so he takes his case to the famous Sherlock Holmes. Holmes immediately realises that a grave crime is about to be committed... and together with his trusty companion, Dr. Watson, he sets out to foil the plot.Show book
The Mis-Education of the Negro is a book originally published in 1933 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The thesis of Dr. Woodson's book is that blacks of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American schools. This conditioning, he claims, causes blacks to become dependent and to seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are a part. He challenges his readers to become autodidacts and to "do for themselves", regardless of what they were taught. Carter Godwin Woodson was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1915, Woodson has been cited as the father of black history. In February 1926 he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week"; it was the precursor of Black History Month.Show book
