Books with title I Will Repay: Complete With Original Illustrations

A collection of pieces that Dickens wrote for his journal Household Words. CONTENTS: The long voyage -- The begging-letter writer -- A child's dream of a star -- Our English watering-place -- Our French watering-place -- Bill-sticking -- Births: Mrs. Meek, of a son -- Lying awake -- The ghost of art -- Out of town -- Out of the season -- A poor man's tale of a patent -- The noble savage -- A flight -- The detective police -- Three detective anecdotes: The pair of gloves. The artful touch. The sofa -- On duty with Inspector Field -- Down with the tide -- A walk in a workhouse -- Prince Bull: a fairy tale -- A plated article -- Our honourable friend -- Our school -- Our vestry -- Our bore -- A monument of French folly.

"I do like a road, because you can be always wondering what is at the end of it." The Story Girl said that once upon a time. Felix and I, on the May morning when we left Toronto for Prince Edward Island, had not then heard her say it, and, indeed, were but barely aware of the existence of such a person as the Story Girl. We did not know her at all under that name.

First published in 1855, Bulfinch's Mythology has introduced generations of readers to the great myths of Greece and Rome, as well as time-honored legends of Norse mythology, medieval, and chivalric tales, Oriental fables, and more. Readers have long admired Bulfinch's versions for the skill with which he wove various versions of a tale into a coherent whole, the vigor of his storytelling, and his abundant cross-references to poetry and painting, demonstrating the relationship of literature and art.Now The Age of Fable, the first section of the Mythology, is available in this inexpensive, highly readable edition. Drawing on the works of Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and other classical authors, as well as an immense trove of stories about the Norse gods and heroes, The Age of Fable offers lively retellings of the myths of the Greek and Roman gods: Venus and Adonis, Jupiter and Juno, Daphne and Apollo, and many others.The myths and legends so vividly retold in this volume underlie much of the art, literature, and culture of Western civilization. As Bulfinch put it, "Without a knowledge of mythology, much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated." With this inexpensive edition of The Age of Fable, readers can immerse themselves in these seminal myths, increasing their appreciation and understanding of Western culture, while enjoying the myths purely as the great stories they are.

Cornelius von Baerle lives only to cultivate the elusive black tulip and win a magnificent prize for its creation. But when his powerful godfather is assassinated, the unwitting Cornelius becomes caught up in a deadly political intrigue. Falsely accused of high treason by a bitter rival, Cornelius is condemned to life in prison. His only comfort is Rosa, the jailer's beautiful daughter, who helps him concoct a plan to grow the black tulip in secret. As Robin Buss explains in his informative introduction, Dumas infuses his story with elements from the history of the Dutch Republic (including two brutal murders) and Holland's seventeenth-century "tulipmania" phenomenon.

AT a time when French readers were altogether unaware of the existence of any books of my writing, a critical examination of my novels appeared under your signature in the Revue des Deux Mondes. I read that article, at the time of its appearance, with sincere pleasure and sincere gratitude to the writer, and I have honestly done my best to profit by it ever since.At a later period, when arrangements were made for the publication of my novels in Paris, you kindly undertook, at some sacrifice of your own convenience, to give the first of the series—“The Dead Secret”—the great advantage of being rendered into French by your pen. Your excellent translation of “The Lighthouse” had already taught me how to appreciate the value of your assistance; and when “The Dead Secret” appeared in its French form, although I was sensibly gratified, I was by no means surprised to find my fortunate work of fiction, not translated, in the mechanical sense of the word, but transformed from a novel that I had written in my language to a novel that you might have written in yours.I am now about to ask you to confer one more literary obligation on me by accepting the dedication of this book, as the earliest acknowledgment which it has been in my power to make of the debt I owe to my critic, to my translator, and to my friend.The stories which form the principal contents of the following pages are all, more or less, exercises in that art which I have now studied anxiously for some years, and which I still hope to cultivate, to better and better purpose, for many more. Allow me, by inscribing the collection to you, to secure one reader for it at the outset of its progress through the world of letters whose capacity for seeing all a writer’s defects may be matched by many other critics, but whose rarer faculty of seeing all a writer’s merits is equaled by very few.

AT a time when French readers were altogether unaware of the existence of any books of my writing, a critical examination of my novels appeared under your signature in the Revue des Deux Mondes. I read that article, at the time of its appearance, with sincere pleasure and sincere gratitude to the writer, and I have honestly done my best to profit by it ever since.At a later period, when arrangements were made for the publication of my novels in Paris, you kindly undertook, at some sacrifice of your own convenience, to give the first of the series—“The Dead Secret”—the great advantage of being rendered into French by your pen. Your excellent translation of “The Lighthouse” had already taught me how to appreciate the value of your assistance; and when “The Dead Secret” appeared in its French form, although I was sensibly gratified, I was by no means surprised to find my fortunate work of fiction, not translated, in the mechanical sense of the word, but transformed from a novel that I had written in my language to a novel that you might have written in yours.I am now about to ask you to confer one more literary obligation on me by accepting the dedication of this book, as the earliest acknowledgment which it has been in my power to make of the debt I owe to my critic, to my translator, and to my friend.The stories which form the principal contents of the following pages are all, more or less, exercises in that art which I have now studied anxiously for some years, and which I still hope to cultivate, to better and better purpose, for many more. Allow me, by inscribing the collection to you, to secure one reader for it at the outset of its progress through the world of letters whose capacity for seeing all a writer’s defects may be matched by many other critics, but whose rarer faculty of seeing all a writer’s merits is equaled by very few.

Hide and Seek was Wilkie Collins' third published novel. It is the first of his novels involving the solution of a mystery, the elements of which are clearer to the reader than to the novel's characters. Suspense is created from the reader's uncertainty as to which characters will find out the truth, when and how.The novel has a convoluted plot, in common with many of Collins’ works.[2] It falls into two parts:the history of “Madonna” GriceMatthew Grice’s discovery of her.Mary Grice is courted and seduced by a man calling himself Arthur Carr. Carr is called away on business, and his letters to Mary (presumably professing his honourable intentions toward her) are intercepted by Mary’s sister Joanna, who considers Carr to be socially inferior to the Grices. Joanna drives the pregnant, unmarried Mary from the family home. Mary gives birth to a daughter and dies miserably, attended only by performers from a travelling circus.Martha Peckover, wife of one of the clowns, adopts the baby (also Mary) and takes possession of her one heirloom, a bracelet made of Mary Sr.’s & Carr’s hair. Mary Jr. becomes a circus performer and is struck deaf and dumb after a riding accident, making her one of several of Collins’ characters with severe physical disabilities. She is exploited by the circus owner, and to rescue her Mrs Peckover takes her to the home of a minister, Dr Joyce. There Valentine Blyth, a painter, sees her and himself adopts her. Mary Jr. grows up beautiful and acquires the nickname Madonna for her resemblance to figures of the Virgin Mary in Italian Renaissance painting. She is admired by Valentine's friend Zack Thorpe, a high-spirited but vacuous young man somewhat resembling Allan Armadale in the novel of that name. Zack leaves home after disagreements with his ultra-religious and disciplinarian father.In a brawl in a disreputable theatre, Zack defends a man who turns out to be Matthew (Mat) Grice, Mary Sr.’s brother, and moves in with him. Mat has spent decades wandering the Americas, but returns home after making his fortune on the California goldfields. Mat's next concern is to find out the fate of his family. He establishes from Joanna that Mary Sr. is dead but her child was born alive. Mat decides to trace the child.Zack introduces Mat to Valentine, who invites Mat to sit for him as a model. In Valentine's house, Mat meets Madonna and also catches sight of a hair bracelet, which he suspects is originally Mary's. He secretly obtains a key to Valentine's bureau and on a visit to the house opens the bureau, identifies the bracelet and satisfies himself that Madonna is Mary's child. He is surprised in the act by Madonna but escapes by blowing out her candle, after which she can neither see nor hear him.Mat then sets about finding Arthur Carr. His efforts are hindered by Joanna's death and Mrs Peckover's disclosure that neither she nor Valentine know who he was. However Mat is struck by the resemblance between Carr's hair (of which he has obtained the part unused in the bracelet) and Zack's. He surmises that Carr is Zack's straitlaced father, confronts him and obtains his confession.Madonna is thus revealed as Zack's half-sister, and he can no longer court her. He accompanies Mat to the New World, but eventually persuades him to return home to his adoptive "family" of the Blyths (with whom Madonna remains) and Zack.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…'Set before and during the French Revolution in the cities of Paris and London, A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of Dr Manette's release from imprisonment in the Bastille and his reunion with daughter, Lucie. A French aristocrat Darnay and English lawyer Carton compete in their love for Lucie and the ensuing tale plays out against the menacing backdrop of the French Revolution and the shadow of the guillotine.