LITMIR.BIZ

Listed by the British newspaper «The Guardian» as number 12 on a list of the 100 greatest novels of all-time, Honore de Balzac's «The Black Sheep» is another installment in his magnum opus «The Human Comedy.» Agathe Rouget, who is born in Issoudun, is sent to be raised by her maternal relatives, the Descoings in Paris by her father Doctor Rouget. Agathe has two sons, Philippe and Joseph, with which the story is principally concerned. Philippe becomes a soldier in Napoleon's armies, while Joseph becomes an artist. Philippe, who is ironically his mother's favorite, is a hard drinker with a gambling problem that brings trouble to the family. The differences between the two brothers are brilliantly contrasted by Balzac as their true natures are revealed throughout the course of the work. As in the rest of «The Human Comedy» Balzac criticizes the value that is placed on wealth and beautifully illustrates the conflict that arises out of the ambition to achieve a place in the aristocratic society of France.

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Ring Lardner's masterpiece, «You Know Me Al» is the story of a semi-literate, boastful, self-deceiving boob and rookie ball-player with the Chicago White Sox told through a series of letters home to his friend Al. A brilliant satire, «You Know Me Al» is a detailed portrait of the early days of baseball and America at the beginning of the 20th century.

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Harriet Wilson (1825-1900) is the first female African American to publish a novel in North America. Her first and only work, «Our Nig: Sketches From the Life From a Free Black» was published in 1859 and was considered lost until 1982 when rediscovered by the scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. The novel is largely autobiographical, tracking the life of a free black women in the Antebellum North. At the age of three, the protagonist Frado is abandoned by her parents and left at the house of the Bellmonts, a wealthy New England family. Her life as a free black woman in the North is filled with hardship and suffering. This realistic tale sugar coats nothing, and the reader witnesses Frado's difficult life as a servant to the family. A groundbreaking work of gender and race identity, Wilson creates a tremendous narrative central to African American history. Much in the vein of Phillis Wheatley and Langston Hughes, Harriet Wilson's novel helped begin the tradition of African American literature in America.

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"Jacob's Room" is the life story of the character Jacob Flanders, from his childhood through to his death in the first World War. Considered to be a highly experimental novel, Jacob's Room is a study in character development. Virginia Woolf through the use of symbology, stream of consciousness, monologue and brief dialogues focuses her novel on the psychology of her characters instead of any specific plot or action of the story. «Jacob's Room» is a critically acclaimed impressionistic work that focuses on the very meaning of life.

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Combined in this volume are two famous Spanish picaresque novels, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's «Lazarillo de Tormes» and Francisco de Quevedo's «The Swindler.» «Lazarillo de Tormes» portrays the clever ploys of a young Salamancan boy determined to outsmart his long string of masters. This Spanish novella was first published in 1554, during the Spanish Inquisition, by an author who wished to remain anonymous due to the work's heretical content. Scholars now attribute the authorship to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. Young Lazarillo is an improbable hero of his time, for he comes from a poor and multiracial family who desperately apprentice him to a blind beggar after committing a crime. Lazarillo soon proves himself to be resourceful and resistant to the corrupt clergymen he must serve. Quevedo's «The Swindler» chronicles the adventures of Don Pablos, a buscón or swindler, who aims in life to learn virtue and to become a caballero, or gentleman, both of which he fails miserably at. The work is a notable piece of satire that criticizes not only Spanish society but the protagonist Pablos himself. His ambition to elevate his status to that of a gentleman is, in Quevedo's opinion, unobtainable; as such aspirations from the lower classes would only destabilize the social order. Together these novels represent some of the first and best examples of the popular tradition of picaresque novels in Spanish literature.

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Published in 1558, ten years after the author's death, «The Heptameron» is an unfinished work inspired by the «Decameron» by Giovanni Boccaccio, containing seventy-two short stories written in French by Marguerite de Navarre, Queen of Navarre and sister of Francois I. The story begins with five gentlemen and five lady travelers who find themselves stranded in a small town in the Pyrenees, and decide to entertain themselves through story-telling, which rapidly evolves into an all-out verbal battle between the sexes. Shocking to many modern readers, «The Heptameron» is a fascinating glimpse into sixteenth century notions of love, lust, infidelity and other sexual matters. It is believed that many of these stories were taken directly from members of the court of Francois I; however, fictional or true, it is certain that this book will delight, offend and educate readers today as it has for centuries.

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Considered one of the best books ever written, «War and Peace» has remained in the upper echelon of world literature because it masterfully captures an intimate view of humanity on an epic scale. Through the use of fictional narrative, Tolstoy utilizes a huge cast of characters, centering on five aristocratic Russian families in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars. These characters, particularly Pierre, Prince Andrei, and the beautiful Natasha, demonstrate different human struggles that are affected by their history, present era, and culture. They simultaneously develop the concepts on which Tolstoy expounds in the thematic essays interspersed throughout the narrative: a person's free will and the shaping of historical events, morality in an imperfect world, youth and age, marriage and death, and, of course, war and peace, in a work so groundbreaking that it was not considered a novel when published in 1865. In redefining the fictional novel, Tolstoy's genius has explored what is fundamentally human with scope and Russian spirit. Presented here in this edition is the first of two volumes.

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Set near the Limberlost Swamp in Indiana at the beginning of the 20th century, «A Girl of the Limberlost» is the story of Elnora Comstock, a young girl who is just entering high school at the outset of the novel. The story is one of Elnora's struggles to overcome her poverty; to win the love of her mother, who blames Elnora for her husband's death; and to find a romantic love of her own. A classic and romantic coming of age story, «A Girl of the Limberlost» will delight readers of all ages.

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This comprehensive volume of all of Twain's shorter works is representative of his vast humor and wit. «The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain» includes the following tales: The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Story of the Bad Little Boy, Cannibalism in the Cars, A Day at Niagara, Legend of the Capitoline Venus, Journalism in Tennessee, A Curious Dream, The Facts in the Great Beef Contract, How I Edited an Agricultural Paper, A Medieval Romance, My Watch, Political Economy, Science vs. Luck, The Story of the Good Little Boy, Buck Fanshaw's Funeral, The Story of the Old Ram, Tom Quartz, A Trial, The Trials of Simon Erickson, A True Story, Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup, Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls, The Canvasser's Tale, The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton, Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale, The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby's, Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning, What Stumped the Bluejays, A Curious Experience, The Invalid's Story, The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm, The Stolen White Elephant, A Burning Brand, A Dying Man's Confession, The Professor's Yarn, A Ghost Story, Luck, Playing Courier, The Californian's Tale, The Diary of Adam and Eve, The Esquimau Maiden's Romance, Is He Living or Is He Dead?, The 1,000,000 Bank-Note, Cecil Rhodes and the Shark, The Joke That Made Ed's Fortune, A Story Without an End, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The Death Disk, Two Little Tales, The Belated Russian Passport, A Double-Barreled Detective Story, The Five Boons of Life, Was It Heaven? Or Hell?, A Dog's Tale, The $30,000 Bequest, A Horse's Tale, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, A Fable, and The Mysterious Stranger. Nearly 500 pages of classic tales by one of America's most loved authors.

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The second novel of the «Chronicles of Barsetshire» series, this 1857 work continues the story of Mr. Harding and his daughter Eleanor in a satirical moral comedy. Upon the death of the much-respected bishop, the citizens fully expect his son, an archdeacon, to fill the vacancy. Much to their consternation, however, a newcomer, Bishop Proudie, is given the position. A struggle for power ensues between these traditional and new forces, in which Proudie's overbearing wife and distasteful curate Mr. Slope vie for the selection of the new warden of the local hospital. Clerical reinforcements are called in, and the results are more than satisfactory for Eleanor and other citizens of the beautifully crafted cathedral city of Barchester.

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