Publisher: Sovereign
The Red Badge of Courage follows events of the American Civil War, and life of a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a red badge of courage, to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as standard-bearer.
Published in 1876, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is an American classic written by Mark Twain. The novel focuses on the youthful escapades of Tom Sawyer, a mischievous and imaginative boy who lives in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Along with his friends, particularly Huckleberry Finn, Tom embarks on a series of adventures ranging from treasure hunting to fighting crime. The book explores themes of childhood, friendship, and moral development and offers a nostalgic look at life along the Mississippi River during the 19th century.Show book
The road novel that gave Sonoma Valley its nickname from the renowned nineteenth-century American author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang. In Oakland, California, former boxer Billy Roberts and his wife, Saxon, have a turbulent marriage, disrupted by the social issues of turn-of-the-century urban California—including labor strikes and violence. So Billy and Saxon embark on a quest through the rural countryside, encountering a Portuguese settlement and an artists’ colony before finally finding happiness on a farm of their own in the Sonoma Valley. “Jack London’s novel Valley of the Moon describes the journey of a working-class couple from Oakland to a rural idyll in Glen Ellen, by way of labor strikes, boxing matches and an artist’s colony in Carmel.” —Sonoma Index-Tribune “Pick up a copy of Jack London’s novel, The Valley of The Moon. . . . In the book you’ll get a feel for London’s love of the land Jack came to call home.” —Sonoma Valley WineShow book
"The Red Room" is a short gothic story written by H. G. Wells in 1894. It was first published in the March 1896 edition of The Idler magazine.An unnamed protagonist chooses to spend the night in an allegedly haunted room, colored bright red in Lorraine Castle. He intends to disprove the legends surrounding it. Despite vague warnings from the three infirm custodians who reside in the castle, the narrator ascends to "the Red Room" to begin his night's vigil.Show book
The Haunted Bookshop (1919) is not a work on the supernatural. Rather, the name refers to the ghosts of the past that haunt all libraries and bookstores: "the ghosts of all great literature." Morley, through the character of Roger Mifflin, speaks about the knowledge and wisdom that one can gain from literature. The suspenseful novel is set in Brooklyn around the end of World War I. The narrative begins with a young advertising man, Aubrey Gilbert, stopping by a bookstore named "The Haunted Bookshop" in the hopes of finding a new client. Gilbert meets the owner, Roger Mifflin. Gilbert does not sell anything, but is attracted by Mifflin and his conviction about the value books and booksellers have to the world. Additionally, Gilbert is thrilled by the fact that his firm's biggest client, Mr. Chapman, is a friend of Mifflin and has asked Mifflin to undertake the education of his daughter, Titania Chapman, by hiring her as an assistant…Show book
First published as Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne in 1845, The Little Match Girl is one of Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen's most poignant fairy tales. On New Year's Eve a poor young match seller, too scared to go home to her abusive father, lights her remaining matches in order to stave off the cold. This collection also includes The Fir Tree and Little Ida's Flowers.Show book
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about the young student of science Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. Shelley had travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim which is just 17 km (10 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before an alchemist was engaged in experiments. Later, she travelled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)—where much of the story takes place—and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy Shelley. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the story within the novel.Show book
