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  Of Human Kindness - What...

  Paula Marantz Cohen

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  While exploring Shakespeare's plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare's genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways. Cohen takes listeners through a selection of Shakespeare's most famous plays, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat "the other." Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic response to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature's power to champion what is best in us.

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  Traits and Stories of the...

  Elizabeth Gaskell

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  Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was a well known British novelist at one of the peak eras for female writers in England. A novelist and short story writer at the height of the Victorian Era, Gaskells novels weave a comprehensive, detailed image of the lives of all kinds of different classes in society during that age, ranging from the very poor to the cream of the aristocratic crop. Of course, given the era in which she wrote, Mrs. Gaskells writing included a wonderful style of prose that still continues to please literary critics, even while discussing the general themes of the day like religion and poverty. While novels like North and South dazzled readers, her short stories, particularly Gothic ghost stories, caught the eye of no less a writer than Charles Dickens, who helped get her stories published during the middle of the 19th century.

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  Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates

  Mary Mapes Dodge

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  Set in the Netherlands, the beautiful land of windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes, the story concerns the experiences of the impoverished Brinker family, including the thrilling race for the silver skates. The good deeds of the Brinker children, Hans and Gretel, help to restore their father's health and bring about their own good fortune. Mary Mapes Dodge also included many interesting details about Dutch family life and the history and geography of the country.Although Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates was published over 140 years ago, it continues to delight countless readers with its story of a virtuous family that inspires us all to have the courage to pursue our dreams.

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  Book The (Unabridged)

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  "The Book" is an unfinished short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, believed to have been written in late 1933. It was first published in the journal Leaves in 1938, after Lovecraft's death.In the story fragment, the narrator is given an ancient book by a strange bookseller, and when he takes it home and examines it, weird and sinister events ensue.In October 1933, Lovecraft wrote in a letter: I am at a sort of standstill in writing disgusted at much of my older work, and uncertain as to avenues of improvement. In recent weeks I have done a tremendous amount of experimenting with different styles and perspectives, but have destroyed most of the results.

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  The Road

  Jack London

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  "The Road" is an autobiographical memoir by Jack London, first published in 1907. It is London's account of his experiences as a hobo in the 1890s, during the worst economic depression the United States had experienced up to that time. He describes his experiences hopping freight trains, "holding down" a train when the crew is trying to throw him off, begging for food and money, and making up extraordinary stories to fool the police. He also tells of the thirty days that he spent in the Erie County Penitentiary, which he described as a place of "unprintable horrors," after being "pinched" (arrested) for vagrancy. In addition, he recounts his time with Kelly's Army, which he joined up with in Wyoming and remained with until its dissolution at the Mississippi River.

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  Eliza

  Barry Pain

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  "Eliza" was the first volume of the Eliza Stories by Barry Pain (1864-1928). It was published in 1900 and was the first of these stories that appeared in cheap editions and were sold on Railway bookstalls. The stories were hugely popular and made Pain's name. Although the book is titled "Eliza" it is her husband who is it's comic hero.The husband, whose name we never learn, is an overbearing, pretentious prig who believes he is right about everything  but is constantly undermined and proved wrong by his long-suffering wife. He is without doubt one of the great comic creations in the tradition of Mr Pooter in "The  Diary of a Nobody."

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