LITMIR.BIZ

First published in 1814, “Mansfield Park” is Jane Austen’s third published novel, the story of Fanny Price, an impoverished young girl who at the age of ten is sent away by her overburdened family to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at their estate, the titular Mansfield Park. This classic coming of age story follows the young lives of Fanny and her four cousins, Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. When Sir Thomas incurs a large debt he is forced to rent out the Mansfield Park parsonage which has been recently freed up by the death of the family’s Uncle Norris. Clergyman Dr. Grant and his wife take up residence in the parsonage and the aristocratic Crawford family from London joins them soon after. The arrival of the wealthy and fashionable Crawford family enlivens life at Mansfield Park and begins to spark romantic entanglements amongst its residents. While largely ignored by critics during her lifetime, “Mansfield Park” has since been recognized as one of Austen’s most mature works. The greatest financial success of Austen’s literary career, “Mansfield Park” is a brilliant and satirical depiction of the lives of the upper class in England during the early 19th century. This edition includes an introduction by Austin Dobson.

Подробнее

First published in 1818, “Persuasion” was English novelist Jane Austen’s last completed work. The novel centers on the story of Anne Elliot, a lovely young woman who years prior had accepted the proposal for marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. Despite Frederick’s cleverness and ambition, his lower social status and lack of wealth makes him an inappropriate match for Anne in the view of her family. Instead of following her heart Anne follows the advice of family friend, Lady Russell, who acting in place of her late mother encourages the young girl not to marry him. Years after breaking off the engagement, Anne is still unmarried and has not forgotten about Frederick, now a Captain in the navy and quite wealthy from his conquests during the Napoleonic Wars. Frederick, now a most eligible bachelor, has returned into her life and is ready to marry, just not to Anne, who he has still not forgiven for rejecting him. A biting criticism of the potential pitfalls of placing societal expectations ahead of the desires of the heart, “Persuasion” remains as one of the author’s most moving love stories. This edition is illustrated by Hugh Thomson.

Подробнее

Few author’s personal lives have been as intertwined with their writing as that of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author’s popularity may have as much to do with the interest in his personal life as with his writing itself. The story behind “This Side of Paradise” certainly lends credence to this idea. When Fitzgerald’s future wife, Zelda Sayre, broke of their courtship in the summer of 1919, the author returned home to finish work on his first novel in hopes that its publication would bring him a literary fame and financial success that would change Zelda’s mind about the prospects of a life together as husband and wife. Despite being nearly rejected by editors at Scribner’s the novel was accepted and as a result Zelda agreed to marry him. Set during World War I and immediately following, the novel is the story of Amory Blaine, a young Midwesterner who leaves his home to attend boarding school and eventually Princeton. The book examines the lives and morality of the era’s youth through Amory’s character, who has a series of romances that eventually lead to his disillusionment. An immediate success ever since its original publication, “This Side of Paradise” would cement Fitzgerald’s position as one of America’s premier literary talents of the first part of the 20th century.

Подробнее

First serialized in 1920 in the “Pictorial Review” magazine, “The Age of Innocence” is Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, which depicts the bygone era of 1870s New York upper class society. It is the story of Newland Archer, a lawyer and heir to one of New York’s most prominent families. Newland is planning to marry the young, beautiful, and sheltered May Welland, a match, which because of May’s social position, he views as highly desirable. However, when May’s exotic thirty-year-old cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, appears on the scene, he begins to question these plans. Newland is intrigued by Ellen’s exotic worldliness and begins to fall in love with her. Noted for Wharton’s attention to the details of late 19th century America, “The Age of Innocence” is an incredibly accurate portrayal of how the upper class lived on the East coast during that time. A classic and romantic story, the novel brilliantly depicts the demands of society to maintain outward appearances and the reputation of the family versus the demands of the heart to pursue true love.

Подробнее

First published in 1902, Owen Wister’s “The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains” is a genre-defining work, arguably the first western novel, in which the life of the cowboy of the Old West is romanticized. A highly fictionalized account of the Johnson County War, a dispute in 1890s Wyoming between large cattle ranchers and smaller operators over land use, Wister’s novel is the story of a tall and handsome cowboy known only as the Virginian. At the outset of the novel we meet the Virginian through the words of an unnamed narrator at Medicine Bow, Wyoming, who is to be escorted over 260 miles to the cattle ranch of Judge Henry in Sunk Creek, Wyoming. Here we also meet the story’s relentless enemy, Trampas, who accuses the Virginian of cheating during a poker game. The Virginian is a man of honor bound by a chivalric code which prevents him from dispatching of his enemies in an underhanded manner despite numerous opportunities to do so. In this novel Wister evokes the untamed world of the American frontier brilliantly depicting its struggle to retain its romantic freedom against the civilizing forces of humanity. A sentimental longing for a simpler time, which characterizes our fascination with the western genre, will swell within the reader as he turns the pages of “The Virginian”. This edition includes an introduction by Struthers Burt.

Подробнее

John Bunyan was a man who felt, above all else, the need to preach the word of God. However during 17th century England it was illegal to preach outside the auspices of the Church of England. His failure to obey this law would land him in the Bedfordshire county jail twice, first for a period of twelve years, and then later for a period of six months. Bunyan could have avoided this harsh sentence if he had simply promised not to continue his preaching, however his faith would not allow him to do so. It was during this incarceration that he would begin composition of “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” a work that has come to be regarded as one of the most important works of religious English literature. First published in 1678, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” is a Christian allegory in the same vein of many such works of Bunyan’s time. It concerns the travel of an everyman named Christian who travels from his home, “The City of Destruction”, to “The Celestial City” atop Mount Zion. “The City of Destruction” is a parallel for this world and “The Celestial City” for the next. In this characterization the journey of Christian can be seen as the quest of man to escape the burden of Earthly sin and find salvation for his soul in heaven. This edition contains both the first and second part of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and includes an introduction by Charles S. Baldwin.

Подробнее

Charles Dickens’s tenth novel, which was first published serially in Dickens’s own periodical journal “Household Words” in 1854, “Hard Times,” is a work that sought to highlight the social and economic divide that was growing between capitalistic mill owners and workers during the Victorian era of Great Britain. Set in the fictitious Coketown, “Hard Times” is a critical examination of the poor working conditions in many English factory towns of the time as well as the changing nature of the aristocracy and the working-class in the second half of the 19th century. The novel centers on the lives of Thomas Gradgrind, senior, the superintendent of the local school, his children, Louisa and Thomas, junior, and Sissy Jupe, a free-spirited circus girl who struggles to fit in as a student under the rigidly utilitarian instruction of the Gradgrind school. Through the lives of Gradgrind’s children, Dickens’s seeks to criticize the failure of excessively utilitarian philosophy which was so prevalent during his time. As Louisa finds herself in an unhappy marriage and Thomas, junior, descends into a life of moral corruption, their father begins to realize the shortcomings of the philosophy that he has so rigidly applied in raising them. This edition includes an introduction by Edwin Percy Whipple.

Подробнее

First serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1899, “Heart of Darkness” is the story of steamboat captain Charlie Marlow’s voyage into the primitive interior of the Congo of Africa. As a manager of a Belgian ivory company, Marlow travels up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, an agent of the ivory company. Deep in the interior of Africa Marlow finds Kurtz living among the savage natives who revere him as a God. While neither a critical nor financial success during Conrad’s lifetime, “Heart of Darkness” has since become Conrad’s most famous work, one of the most analyzed works in the history of literature. In “Heart of Darkness”, the Polish born Conrad has crafted an intense psychological drama that deals with the very nature of good and evil. Sharp contrast is drawn by Conrad between the “civilized” world of continental Europe and the “uncivilized” world of the interior of Africa, in a mysteriously ambiguous narrative that presents the reader with an inquisitive commentary of the evil savagery that lies at the heart of human existence. This edition includes the following additional shorter works: “An Outpost of Progress,” “Youth,” “The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’,” “Amy Foster,” “Falk: A Reminiscence,” “Typhoon,” “The End of the Tether,” “The Duel,” “The Secret Sharer,” and “The Shadow-Line.”

Подробнее

First published serially between 1893 and 1894, “The Jungle Book” is Rudyard Kipling’s classic collection of jungle tales in which we first meet Mowgli, a child lost in the jungles of India and raised by a pack of wolves. To survive in the jungle Mowgli most learn from the animals to abide by the laws of the jungle. A cast of interesting creatures surround Mowgli, including Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther, who help the young man to survive, and the tiger Shere Khan, who is envious of Mowgli and wishes his demise. Also contained in this collection are the stories of Kotick, a white seal in search of a new home for his tribe were they will not be hunted, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a mongoose who defends an Indian family against a pair of cobras. Several other tales of the jungle grace this collection which is interspersed with beautiful poetry relating to the stories. One of the most popular collections of short stories for children ever written, “The Jungle Book” was inspired by Kipling’s own experiences as a youth in India, where he would spend many of his formative years. This edition includes illustrations by John L. Kipling, William H. Drake, and Paul Frenzeny.

Подробнее

Widely considered as one of Dickens most superb and complete novels, “Bleak House” contains a more vastly complex and engaging array of characters and sub-plots than any of Dickens’s novels. As is commonplace in his works, Dickens satirically criticizes the social inequities of his time turning his attacks in this instance to the judicial system of 19th century England. At the center of the novel is the story of John Jarndyce who is tied up in a long-running litigation concerning an estate to which his wards Richard Carstone and Ada Clare are the beneficiaries. A series of events take the vast array of comic and tragic characters from the slums of London to the mansions of noblemen, involving some in treachery and others in discovery. Dickens blends the perfect balance of comedy and social satire in a story that contains mystery, tragedy, murder, redemption, and enduring love. This edition includes an introduction by Edwin Percy Whipple and a biographical afterword.

Подробнее