Books in Best Novel Classics series

Classics for Your Collection: goo.gl/U80LCr --------- Ebenezer Scrooge, the very definition of grumpy miserliness, gets a second chance at figuring out what's really important in life, with the help of some ghosts who give him an unforgettable version of "This is Your Life." In the book's famous opening scene, on the night just before Christmas the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge sits in his freezing cold counting house, oblivious to the discomfort of his shivering young assistant Bob Cratchit. Scrooge is ceaselessly rude to relatives and visitors alike who drop in to convey their Christmas greetings or ask for a contribution to charity. Scrooge returns to his equally chilly mansion where he has an extraordinary supernatural experience. The spirit of his dead partner, Marley appears narrating tales of eternal suffering that he is condemned to endure because of the mean and uncharitable deeds that Marley did when he was alive. Marley tells Scrooge that three other supernatural visitors will make their appearance over the next three nights. The rest of the book traces the events that happen when these three otherworldly beings visit Scrooge. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a quintessential piece of what Christmas is all about (and maybe a touch Halloween, too!). The story succeeds in entrancing so many of us because it touches upon the emotions, the senses, the human condition, and encapsulates it all in the life and death struggle we all go through...plus, who doesn't love a good ghost story and a happy ending!? A pearl in your book shelf. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection: goo.gl/U80LCr --------- A Modest Proposal A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. It’s just so brilliantly funny. Swift adopts a very serious tone, a very funny argument coupled with an authoritative voice, that almost sounds real. He delivers his proposal in such a hilariously cold way that embodies a dejected government official. Swift is 'proposing' a solution to the serious problems of overpopulation, unemployment, and food shortages, not to mention providing the social and moral benefits of kinder husbands and better parents. In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal" is now conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire. Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children, and calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses methods of argument throughout his essay which lampoon the then-influential William Petty and the social engineering popular among followers of Francis Bacon. This essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift's solution when he states, "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout." A Modest Proposal is included in many literature programs as an example of early modern western satire. It also serves as an exceptional introduction to the concept and use of argumentative language, lending itself well to secondary and post-secondary essay courses. Outside of the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is a relevant piece included in many comparative and global literature and history courses, as well as those of numerous other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and even the social sciences. Facts and Trivia: 1. Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, which contains hundreds of private letters written by Thompson over the years, contains a letter in which he uses A Modest Proposal's satire technique against the Vietnam War. Thompson writes a letter to a local Aspen newspaper informing them that, on Christmas Eve, he was going to use napalm to burn a number of dogs and hopefully any humans they find. This letter protests the burning of Vietnamese people occurring overseas. An incredible satire and one of the best.A very short political tract by Swift in a lashing, satirical vein and feast for readers! Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection: goo.gl/U80LCr --------- The plot focuses on Adam Salton, originally from Australia, who is contacted by his great-uncle, Richard Salton, in 1860 Derbyshire for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. His great-uncle wants to make Adam his heir. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself at the centre of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences. The new heir to the Caswall estate, known as Castra Regis, the Royal Camp, Edgar Caswall, appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl, Lilla Watford, while a local lady, Arabella March, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who has Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Castra Regis Tower. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Franz Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He has a giant kite in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons which have gone berserk and have attacked his fields. Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who has been bitten on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed in the region. The mongoose attacks Arabella who shoots it to death. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Arabella then murders Oolanga, the African servant, by dragging him down into a pit or hole. Adam witnesses the murder which he cannot prove. Adam then suspects Arabella of the other crimes. Adam and Sir Nathaniel de Salis, who is a friend of Richard Salton's, then plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. They suspect that she wants to murder Mimi Watford, whom Adam later marries. Nathaniel is a Van Helsing-type character who wants to hunt down Arabella. The White Worm is a large snake-like creature that dwells in the hole or pit in Arabella's house located in Diana's Grove. The White Worm has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever is thrown to it in the pit. The White Worm ascends from the pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi Watford in a forest. Adam plans to pour sand into the pit and to use dynamite to kill the giant White Worm while it is inside the pit. In the final scene, Adam Salton, Mimi Watford, and Nathaniel de Salis confront Arabella and Edgar Caswall. A thunderstorm and lightning destroy Diana's Grove by igniting the dynamite. Scroll Up and Grab Your Copy! Timeless Classics for Your Bookshelf (Available at Amazon’s CreateSpace) Classic Books for Your Inspiration and Entertainment Visit Us at: goo.gl/0oisZU Books by Bram Stoker Dracula's Guest https://www.createspace.com/6583947 Dracula https://www.createspace.com/6519192 The Jewel of Seven Stars https://www.createspace.com/6585382

Classics for Your Collection:goo.gl/U80LCr---------A Great Work From Stephen CraneSynopsis:The book was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, an oiler named Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned. Crane's personal account of the shipwreck and the men's survival, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story", was first published a few days after his rescue.The book is divided into seven sections, each told mainly from the point of view of the correspondent, based upon Crane himself. The first part introduces the four characters—the correspondent, a condescending observer detached from the rest of the group;[15] the captain, who is injured and morose at having lost his ship, yet capable of leadership; the cook, fat and comical, but optimistic that they will be rescued; and the oiler, Billie, who is physically the strongest, and the only one in the story referred to by name. The four are survivors of a shipwreck, which occurred before the beginning of the story, and are drifting at sea in a small dinghy.In the following four sections, the moods of the men fluctuate from anger at their desperate situation, to a growing empathy for one another and the sudden realization that nature is indifferent to their fates. The final chapter begins with the men's resolution to abandon the floundering dinghy they have occupied for thirty hours and to swim ashore. As they begin the long swim to the beach, Billie the oiler, the strongest of the four, swims ahead of the others; the captain advances towards the shore while still holding onto the boat, and the cook uses a surviving oar. The correspondent is trapped by a local current, but is eventually able to swim on. After three of the men safely reach the shore and are met by a group of rescuers, they find Billie dead, his body washed up on the beach.The Open Boat is an intriguing short story by Stephen Crane that recognizes man's relationship to nature. This story portrays nature in sharp contrast to the romanticism of early American Romantic writers, who viewed nature as there nurturing mother.From the Book:None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks.Facts and Trivia1. After Crane's premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 28, his work enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. Author and critic Elbert Hubbard wrote in Crane's obituary in the Philistine that "The Open Boat" was "the sternest, creepiest bit of realism ever penned"2. Another of the author's friends, H. G. Wells, wrote that "The Open Boat" was "beyond all question, the crown of all [Crane's] work.”Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection:goo.gl/U80LCr---------This was an interesting collection of short stories by author Jack London, of a time mostly gone by in Hawaii. Originally published in 1912, this collection contains:- The House of Pride- Koolau the Leper- Good-bye, Jack- Aloha Oe- Chun Ah Chun- The Sheriff of Kona- Jack London by HimselfA departure from London's normal tales of the frozen North and dogs. All of these tales take place in the islands of Hawaii and contain it's cultural morals, taboos, missionaries, and leprosy. All the stories take place near the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The stories are entertaining and will transport you to those bygone times of Hawaii. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection: goo.gl/U80LCr --------- The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors. Some residents say this town was bewitched during the early days of the Dutch settlement. Other residents say an old Native American chief, the wizard of his tribe, held his powwows here before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". The "Legend" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth. Bones, the local hero, vies with Ichabod for Katrina's hand, playing a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and the fate of Sleepy Hollow's fortune weighs in the balance for some time. The tension between the three is soon brought to a head. On a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, but his true aim is to propose to Katrina after the guests leave. His intentions, however, are ill-fated. After having failed to secure Katrina's hand, Ichabod rides home "heavy-hearted and crestfallen" through the woods between Van Tassel's farmstead and the Sleepy Hollow settlement. As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his active imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus' harvest party. After nervously passing under a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, Ichabod encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp.... Unsettled by his fellow traveler's eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion's head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to "vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone" upon crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life, desperately goading his temperamental plow horse down the Hollow. However, to the pedagogue's horror, the ghoul clambers over the bridge, rears his horse, and hurls his severed head into Ichabod's terrified face. The next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was said "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related." Indeed, the only relics of the schoolmaster's flight are his wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat, and a mysterious shattered pumpkin. Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the ghost was really Brom (an agile stunt rider) in disguise. Irving's narrator concludes, however, by stating that the old Dutch wives continue to promote the belief that Ichabod was "spirited away by supernatural means," and a legend develops around his disappearance and sightings of his melancholy spirit. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection:goo.gl/U80LCr---------Synopsis for The Monster and Other StoriesThe story takes place in the small, fictional town of Whilomville, New York. An African-American coachman named Henry Johnson, who is employed by the town's physician, Dr. Trescott, becomes horribly disfigured after he saves Trescott's son from a fire. When Henry is branded a "monster" by the town's residents, Trescott vows to shelter and care for him, resulting in his family's exclusion from the community.These three stories in the book focus on human actions and reactions. “Monster” is particularly interesting as it deals with a black man, Henry Johnson, who saves his employer’s son from a fire, but in the process becomes horribly disfigured. The employer, a doctor, does what he can for Henry Johnson, and supports him. The reactions of the town people play a central role in the story and how they deal with a physically and mentally disfigured man in their town. It makes the reader think also about race and if that made any difference in the story. “The Blue Hotel” is another story that reads like good fiction, but it has an underlying plot of how random actions lead to a certain outcome. “His New Mittens” is a child’s story filled with the emotions and logic of a child. From peer pressure to embarrassment and from resentment to belonging. A very well told story.This collection gives the reader three great stories they probably never read or for that matter heard of. To most people, Crane would seem to be the “one hit wonder” writer of Red Badge of Courage. This collection shows that there is much more depth to the writer than just a war story writer. Very much worth the read. Facts and Trivia:Crane began writing The Monster in June 1897 while living in Oxted, England with his longtime partner Cora Taylor. Despite his previous success—The Red Badge of Courage had gone through 14 printings in the United States and six in England—Crane was running out of money. To survive financially, he worked at a feverish pitch, writing prolifically for both the English and the American markets. He later remarked that he wrote The Monster "under the spur of great need", as he desperately required funds.In August of that year, Crane and Cora were injured in a carriage accident while visiting friend Harold Frederic and his mistress Kate Lyon in Homefield, Kenley; after a week of recuperation, they followed the couple on vacation to Ireland, where Crane finished the story.Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!

Classics for Your Collection: goo.gl/U80LCr --------- Synopsis: Anne is an orphan girl who was adopted by Marilla and Matthew Curthbert...let's say she was meant to be a boy. She is an odd looking little girl with fierce red hair, freckles, gray eyes, and pale skin. She is a full kindred spirit and very imaginative. Everybody suspects that she will be a disappointment but she is not. From adventures,imagination, to meeting new friends, to accidents, to love, being smart, and turning into a beauty Anne's life is not what she ever thought it would be. Summary: Anne of Green Gables is the story of a young orphaned girl named Anne. Born in Nova Scotia only to lose both of her parents from the fever at the age of three months, Anne has grown up in many households, never being able to stay in one place for long. As you can imagine, this has left young Anne feeling needy and unwanted. And when siblings Marilla and Matthew decide to adopt a boy to help work on their farm, they never expect to get a girl instead. Naturally, their first instinct is to give her to someone else; but soon after, under the influence of Anne's pleading, they decide that with them is where she shall stay. Read along in this classic as Anne performs in the Christmas concert, shuns the semi-romantic advances of Gilbert Blythe, and accidentally gets her one true bosom friend drunk. Thin, freckled, and with hair the color of carrots, Anne is ridiculed for her queer looks — but with a bright imagination and fierce determination to be loved and cared for, Anne soon makes many friends. One wonderful aspect of this story is Anne's relationship with her stepparent, Matthew. Almost instantaneously, Matthew takes to Anne as if she were his biological daughter; to use Anne's own words, she and Matthew are “kindred spirits.” Like most girls her age, Anne is impulsive and high-strung. But she's also high-spirited and enthusiastic for what life has to offer. Even if you're not sold on Anne's character at first, most readers have fallen for her at one point or another in the book. No wonder it has been one of the best all-time classics! It's such a lovely, charming, heart-warming story. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy! Books for You: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain https://www.createspace.com/6394066 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain https://www.createspace.com/6427418 American Fairy Tales by L. Frank Baum https://www.createspace.com/6413969 Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm https://www.createspace.com/6440051 Sky Island by L. Frank Baum https://www.createspace.com/6446563 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett https://www.createspace.com/6455917 The Oz Series Book 1: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6426287 Book 2: The Marvelous Land of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6462832 Book 3: Ozma of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6356346 Book 4: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464450 Book 5: The Road to Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464521 Book 6: The Emerald City of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464602 Book 7: The Patchwork Girl of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464682 Book 8: TIK-TOK of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6353841 Book 9: The Scarecrow of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6461981 Book 10: Rinkitink in Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464764 Book 11: The Lost Princess of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6465342 Book 12: The Tin Woodman of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6466582 Book 13: The Magic of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6466620 Book 14: Glinda of OZ https://www.createspace.com/6461890