Other books that might interest you

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  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  Mark Twain

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  First published in 1884, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is among the first novels in American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English. Some have called it the first Great American Novel, and the book has become required reading in many schools throughout the United States. The story is set along the Mississippi River in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas around 1840. It depicts the development of Huckleberry (Huck) Finn, a boy about thirteen years old. Huck has to find a way between his belief in the right thing to do and what most do believe to be wrong.

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  Art and the Handicraftman...

  Oscar Wilde

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  Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s.ART AND THE HANDICRAFTSMAN: The fragments of which this lecture is composed are taken entirely from the original manuscripts which have but recently been discovered. It is not certain that they all belong to the same lecture, nor that all were written at the same period. Some portions were written in Philadelphia in 1882.

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  Odour of Chrysanthemums

  D. H. Lawrence

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  'Was this what it all meant - utter, intact separateness, obscured by heat of living?' In Odour of Chrysanthemums D.H. Lawrence explores the concept of human isolation and the nature of love and relationships. This is the story of Elizabeth, a young wife and mother waiting for her alcoholic husband to return home from what she assumes is another night of drinking…

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  The Old Boys

  William Trevor

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  The “wryly entertaining” debut novel of old grudges and petty power struggles from the Whitbread Award–winning author of Love and Summer (The New York Times). Graduates of an elite English public school, the septuagenarian members of the Old Boys Association have convened in London to decide who shall be their next president. Mr. Jaraby has been proposed, and unless there is an objection from his circle of peers, he will assume the position automatically. It seems like little more than an excuse to get together and reminisce about old pranks played on the headmaster. But while none of their boyhood bonds have been forgotten, neither have their old cruelties been forgiven.   Mr. Nox certainly remembers Jaraby’s behavior from their time as schoolmates. And when he decides to oppose Jaraby for the presidency, the conflict unleashes decades of buried rivalries, regrets, failures, and the savage nature hidden just beneath good English manners.   “The elemental value of Mr. Trevor’s wryly entertaining story lies less in its grubby specifics than in its illuminating generalities. It reminds us that at every level of every society there are groups of Old Boys cocooned in smug insularity.” —The New York Times  

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  The Jungle

  Upton Sinclair

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  Jurgis Rudkus, an impoverished Lithuanian immigrant, takes a lowly job at Brown's slaughterhouse to support his young wife and their relatives. Once admiring America for its potential, Rudkus has found opportunities to be too far out of his reach. After being evicted, Rudkus is living in a slum and deeply in debt - unable to support his family. As he attempts to make ends meet, the oppressive working conditions and crippling poverty begin to take a toll on Rudkus and his family.

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  The Gift of the Magi - An...

  O. Henry

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  The Gift of the Magi may be the second most widely read O’Henry story in grammar, middle, and high school. The Ransom of Red Chief rates number one. Young readers have a slightly more difficult time relating to two young married people, old after all to them, than can relate to 10 year old Red Chief, his father who makes the kidnappers pay him back in order to take Red Chief off their hands plus come in darkness so others don’t jail them, and all the antics and excitement of it all. The Gift of the Magi is not read or heard widely after one leaves high school, which is a shame because it is such a magical story about expectations being crushed by realities, and the turn of events which O’Henry was so masterful at achieving, as in The Ransom of Red Chief, the other best known O’Henry story that Simply has also recorded. The interesting twist is these two people both sacrifice for the other but that means neither gift works as planned. However, and O’Henry is full of howevers, the two are deeply in love and shrug it off and move on in their happiness. A final thought for the reader: Is there anyone similar to O’Henry in style? We can’t think of one and that is another reason to listen to these stories. As with all Simply short stories, you should enjoy the ideas put forth in the introduction and afterword. Things to think about or write about if a student. O'Henry's other two best loved stories are also recorded: The Cop and the Anthem and A Retrieved Reformation. Keywords: Ransom of Red Chief, Southwestern humor, Mark Twain, Gift of the Magi, O’Henry, New York, the Four Million, The Trimmed Lamp.

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