Other books that might interest you

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  Hard Times - Full Cast Drama

  Charles Dickens

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  In Charles Dickens' "Hard Times," the industrial landscape of Coketown serves as a bleak backdrop to a tale that explores the harsh realities of the 19th-century British society, a world driven by utilitarianism and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. The novel is a powerful narrative that delves into the lives of the characters living in this grim, factory-dominated town. 
   
  The story is centered around two contrasting characters: Thomas Gradgrind, a strict and utilitarian-minded schoolmaster, and Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy factory owner. Gradgrind's rigid belief in facts and statistics and Bounderby's promotion of the idea that anyone can rise from poverty through hard work represent the heart of the utilitarian philosophy that permeates the town. However, as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that these ideals come at a great cost. Children are educated to suppress their imagination and emotions, while the workers in Bounderby's factories endure miserable conditions and are denied any sense of dignity. 
   
  Amid this grim setting, Dickens introduces characters like Stephen Blackpool, an honest and hardworking millhand, and Sissy Jupe, the daughter of a circus performer. These characters bring a sense of humanity and compassion to the story, challenging the utilitarian principles that have stripped Coketown of its soul. As the narrative progresses, the lives of the characters intersect in a series of hardships and trials, ultimately leading to moments of redemption and transformation. 
   
  "Hard Times" is a narrative that critiques the dehumanizing effects of an overly rational, industrial society while emphasizing the importance of compassion, imagination, and the recognition of the complexities of human nature.

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  What You Ought to Do (Unabridged)

  Booker T. Washington

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  Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO: It is comparatively easy to perform almost any kind of work, but the value of any work is in having it performed so that the desired results may be most speedily reached, and in having the means with which the worker labours arranged so as to meet certain ends.

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  A Lost Masterpiece - From their...

  Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright...

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright.

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  Cyrano de Bergerac - A Play in...

  Edmond Rostand

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  Based on true events and individuals, this compelling play outlines the life and love of Cyrano de Bergerac, a man whose talent with words rivals that of his talent with a sword. Sworn to protect a man who loves the woman that Cyrano pines after, he finds himself penning love letters to her on the other's behalf. As Christian and Roxane fall even more in love, Cyrano must stand by watching a life that could have been his.

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  Tales from Edgar Allan Poe -...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement.  
  Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre.  He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Here is a third collection of some of his best stories:  "The Oblong Box", "M.S. Found In A Bottle", and "Loss of Breath".
  Don't miss the other volumes in the Tales from Edgar Allan Poe collection.
  Public Domain (P)2012 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

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  The Blue Castle

  L. M. Montgomery

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  The Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables (1908).
  The story is set during the early 1900s in the fictional town of Deerwood, located in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. Deerwood is based on Bala, Ontario, which Montgomery visited in 1922. Maps of the two towns show similarities.
  This novel is considered one of L.M. Montgomery's few adult works of fiction, along with A Tangled Web, and is the only book she wrote that is entirely set outside of Prince Edward Island. It has grown in popularity since being republished in 1990. The book was adapted for the stage twice; in 1982 it was made into a successful Polish musical, and ten years later Canadian playwright Hank Stinson authored another version, The Blue Castle: A Musical Love Story.
  alancy is, at twenty-nine, the old maid of the Stirling clan, which is a reputable family that has lived in the same region for over fifty years. As an only child, her entire life has been spent with her nagging mother, her perpetually down-trodden aunt, and a gossipy extended family, who, in spirit of the Victorian and middle class, actively discourage happiness and treat Valancy like a child, telling her what to do every day and constantly comparing her with her beautiful cousin, Olive, putting her down, and calling her by the baby name "Doss." Her only respites come from daydreaming of her "Blue Castle" and the handsome men who would reside in it with her, along with reading the nature books of John Foster.

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