Books in Cozy Classics series

Featured title in the 2018 PBS Great American Reads“I think the reason we’re so struck by [Jane Eyre] is how Charlotte Brontë manages to relate, expertly, what it means to be a human being...and that never changes.” (Narrator Thandie Newton)Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic classic is an early exploration of women’s independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety. Performing the early Victorian novel with great care and respect, actress Thandie Newton (Crash, The Pursuit of Happyness) draws out Jane Eyre’s intimacy and depth while conveying how truly progressive Brontë was in an era of extreme restraint.

Experiments which in previous years were made with ornamental plants have already afforded evidence that the hybrids, as a rule, are not exactly intermediate between the parental species. With some of the more striking characters, those, for instance, which relate to the form and size of the leaves, the pubescence of the several parts, etc., the intermediate, indeed, is nearly always to be seen; in other cases, however, one of the two parental characters is so preponderant that it is difficult, or quite impossible, to detect the other in the hybrid. ―from “4. The Forms of the Hybrid” One of the most influential and important scientific works ever written, the 1865 paper “Experiments in Plant Hybridisation” was all but ignored in its day, and its author, Austrian priest and scientist GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (1822–1884), died before seeing the dramatic long-term impact of his work, which was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and is now considered foundational to modern genetics. A simple, eloquent description of his 1856–1863 study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants―Mendel analyzed 29,000 of them―this is essential reading for biology students and readers of science history. Cosimo presents this compact edition from the 1909 translation by British geneticist WILLIAM BATESON (1861–1926).

Turgenev is an author who no longer belongs to Russia only. During the last fifteen years of his life he won for himself the reading public, first in France, then in Germany and America, and finally in England. In his funeral oration the spokesman of the most artistic and critical of European nations, Ernest Renan, hailed him as one of the greatest writers of our times: 'The Master, whose exquisite works have charmed our century, stand more than any other man as the incarnation of the whole race', because 'a whole world lived in him and spoke through his mouth'. Not the Russian world only, we may add, but the whole Slavonic world, to which it was 'an honour to have been expressed by so great a Master'. As regards his method of dealing with his material and shaping it into mould, he stands even higher than as a pure creator. Tolstoy is more plastical, and certainly as deep and original and rich in creative power as Turgenev, and Dostoevsky is more intense, fervid, and dramatic. But as an artist, as master of the combination of details into a harmonious whole, as an architect of imaginative work, he surpasses all the prose writers of his country, and has but few equals among the great novelists of other lands. To one familiar with all Turgenev's works it is evident that he possessed the keys of all human emotions, all human feelings, the highest and the lowest, the novel as well as the base. But there was in him such a love of light, sunshine, and living human poetry, such an organic aversion for all that is ugly, or coarse and discordant, that he makes himself almost exclusively the poet of the gentler side of human nature. We may say that the description of love is Turgenev's speciality.

After hearing how the toy nutcracker that she and her brother received for Christmas got his ugly face, Marie helps break the spell he is under and watches him change into a handsome prince. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.After hearing how the toy nutcracker that she and her brother received for Christmas got his ugly face, Marie helps break the spell he is under and watches him change into a handsome prince

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ chronicles the journey of Judah Ben-Hur and the life of Jesus, from Ben-Hur's quest for vengeance against the Romans and his search for his imprisoned family to the birth of Jesus in the manger and the Crucifixion. Cleverly connecting two storylines to create both an exciting tale of adventure - with shipwrecks, chariot races, and duels - and a compelling story of love and spiritual growth, Ben-Hur has continued to engage readers and entertain audiences for more than a century. Once the best-selling and most widely read American novel, and the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope, Ben-Hur's popularity and esteem have given rise to numerous stage and film adaptations since the novel's first publication in 1880. This replica of the beautifully illustrated "Player's Edition" features nearly fifty images of scenes and characters from the play that will surely delight any reader of this classic piece of historical fiction. LEWIS "LEW" WALLACE (1827-1905) was born in Brookville, Indiana. He worked as an attorney, was elected to the State Senate of Indiana, and served as a Union general in the American Civil War before writing his most famous book, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. His other works include The Boyhood of Christ, Life of Gen. Ben Harrison, and The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell, as well as an autobiography and several other titles. Wallace also served as governor of the New Mexico Territory.