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  The Tin Woodman of Oz

  L. Frank Baum

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  Join the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow as they journey across the fantastic magical Land of Oz in search of the Tin Woodman's long-lost sweetheart. In a series of adventures sure to thrill Oz fans both old and new, these beloved friends face such challenges as a selfish giantess and a group of quarrelsome dragons--all to fulfill a promise made long ago to a beautiful Munchkin girl.The Tin Woodman sits on the glittering tin throne of his splendid tin castle, ruling the Winkle Country of the Land of Oz with the help of his best friend, the Scarecrow. All is peaceful and well, but when a young wanderer named Woot asks the Tin Woodman how he came to be made of tin, the emperor recalls his days as a flesh-and-blood woodchopper and his love for Nimmie Amee, a Munchkin girl so fair that the sunsets blushed when they fell upon her.

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  On the Nature of Things (Leonard...

  Titus Lucretius Carus

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  On the Nature of Things, written in the first century BCE by Titus Lucretius Carus, is one of the principle expositions on Epicurean philosophy and science to have survived from antiquity. Far from being a dry treatise on the many topics it covers, the original Latin version (entitled De Rerum Natura) was written in the form of an extended poem in hexameter, with a beauty of style that was admired and emulated by his successors, including Ovid and Cicero. The version read here is an English verse translation written by William Ellery Leonard. Although Leonard penned his version in the early twentieth century, he chose to adhere to both the vocabulary and meter (alternating between pentameter and hexameter) of Elizabethan-era poetry.While the six untitled books that comprise On the Nature of Things delve into a broad range of subjects, including the physical nature of the universe, the workings of the human mind and body, and the natural history of the Earth, Lucretius repeatedly asserts throughout the work that his chief purpose is to provide the reader with a means to escape the "darkness of the mind" imposed by superstition and ignorance. To this end he offers us his enlightening verses, that through them might be revealed to us "nature's aspect, and her laws". (Summary by Daniel Vimont)

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  Sons and Lovers

  D.H. Lawrence

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  The Modern Library recently placed ‘Sons and Lovers’ ninth on their list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.The autobiographical novel tells the story of Paul Morel, sensitive and talented son of an English coal miner in Nottinghamshire. His mother, Gertrude, the educated daughter of Puritanical middle-class parents, has married the miner in the heat of physical attraction. The marriage soon disintegrates; Walter Morel takes to drink and beats his wife and children, and Mrs. Morel pours all her possessive love upon her sons, especially Paul.The novel is concerned with Paul’s painful introduction to the commercial world, his discovery of books and art, his growing discontent with his background of poverty and gloom, and his developing talent for painting. It records his lover affairs with Miriam and with Clara Dawes. Because of the strong bond of love between him and his mother, he is never able to give his affection wholly to either of the women.'Sons and Lovers,' which was attacked on its publication because of its frankness in dealing with sexual matters, is more naturalistic than Lawrence’s later work. It is remarkable for its portrayal of English mining life, its vivid characterizations, and its poetic descriptions of nature.

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  Barbara of the House of Grebe

  Thomas Hardy

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  Barbara, a young and impetuous heiress, rejects the stern Lord Uplandtowers to elope with a poor but handsome man, Edmund Willowes. When Barbara’s parents send Edmund to Europe, they hope to change him into a more suitable match for their daughter. But after disaster strikes, Edmund returns in a way nobody could have imagined.

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  Mary A Fiction

  Mary Wollstonecraft

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  This story is, in essence, the novelization of Wollstonecraft's ultimate work, Vindication of the Rights of Women. It follows a girl who grows up in a moderately wealthy English family in 18th century, trying to find love and individuality in a time when such concepts are incomprehensible to society. Mary, the main character, follows life and love through a turbulent series of ups and downs while trying to remain true to herself.

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  Baa Baa Black Sheep

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1907. 
   
  Born in Bombay on 30th December 1865 both he and his sister were sent back to England when he was five, as was the custom of the British ruling elite in India. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple they boarded with in Portsmouth had one useful effect that Kipling himself suggested; it gave him an early impetus for a literary life. 
   
  This was further enhanced by his return to India at the age of sixteen to work on a local paper. Not only did this result in him writing constantly but also gave him the opportunity to explore issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work. 
   
  Whilst he is best remembered for his many classic children’s stories and a host of popular poems including ‘If….’ he is also regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.

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