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In Search of El Dorado
Harry Collingwood 试读
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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Household Papers and Stories
Harriet Beecher Stowe 试读
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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The Island of Doctor Moreau
赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯 试读
Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo: a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts.Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments with truly horrific results.
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On the Choice of Books
Thomas Carlyle 试读
ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. Gentlemen, I have accepted the office you have elected me to, and have now the duty to return thanks for the great honour done me. Your enthusiasm towards me, I admit, is very beautiful in itself, however undeserved it may be in regard to the object of it. It is a feeling honourable to all men, and one well known to myself when I was in a position analogous to your own. I can only hope that it may endure to the end? that noble desire to honour those whom you think worthy of honour, and come to be more and more select and discriminate in the choice of the object of it; for I can well understand that you will modify your opinions of me and many things else as you go on. (Laughter and cheers.) There are now fifty-six years gone last November since I first entered your city, a boy of not quite fourteen?fifty-six years ago? to attend classes here and gain knowledge of allkinds, I know not what, with feelings of wonder and awe-struck expectation; and now, after a long, long course, this is what we have come to. (Cheers.) There is something touching and tragic, and yet at the same time beautiful, to see the third generation, as it were, of my dear old native land, rising up and saying, " Well, you are not altogether an unworthy labourer in the vineyard: you have toiled through a great variety of fortunes, and have had many judges." As the old proverb says, " He that builds by the wayside has many masters." We must expect a variety of judges; but the voice of young Scotland, through you, is really of some value to me, and I return you many thanks for it, though I cannot describe my emotions to, you, and perhaps they will be much more conceivable if expressed in silence. (Cheers.) When this office was first p...
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A Prisoner in Fairyland
Algernon Blackwood 试读
Minks—Herbert Montmorency—was now something more than secretary, even than private secretary: he was confidential-private-secretary, adviser, friend; and this, more because he was a safe receptacle for his employer's enthusiasms than because his advice or judgment had any exceptional value. So many men need an audience. Herbert Minks was a fine audience, attentive, delicately responsive, sympathetic, understanding, and above all—silent. He did not leak. Also, his applause was wise without being noisy. Another rare quality he possessed was that he was honest as the sun. To prevaricate, even by gesture, or by saying nothing, which is the commonest form of untruth, was impossible to his transparent nature. He might hedge, but he could never lie. And he was 'friend,' so far as this was possible between employer and employed, because a pleasant relationship of years' standing had established a bond of mutual respect under conditions of business intimacy which often tend to destroy it.
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Poison Island
Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 试读
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch short stories, novels, criticism, and edited anthologies, including the "Oxford Book" series. He was Assistant Editor of the Liberal weekly "The Speaker," and from 1912 until his death was Professor of English at Cambridge University. Writing under the pen name "Q," Sir Arthur produced a variety of work, including adventure stories, historical fiction, satire, stories of the supernatural, and mysteries. "Poison Island" is an adventure after Robert Louis Stevenson. Harry Brooks is sent at age fourteen by his widowed father for a classical education at Mr. Stimcoe's Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen. Mr. Stimcoe is a drunk, and the school a travesty, but Harry meets the mysterious Captain Coffin. Coffin is building a ship to voyage to the Honduras, where he expects to find large amounts of gold, while avoiding the poison of the title. The Captain has a map, but is the treasure real, or a product of drunken imagination? Harry will find out.
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The Scarlet Plague
Jack London 试读
The Scarlet Plague (1912) is set in London's hometown of San Francisco, California.ack London’s plague novel, in which the world’s population has been reduced to a few scattered bands of primitive scavengers, has influenced subsequent science-fiction apocalypses and dystopias — from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four to the movies Road Warrior and Idiocracy.Jack London, world-famous adventurer and author of The Call of the Wild, wrote several key works of Radium-Age science fiction (1904-33), including The Iron Heel (1908) and The Star Rover (1914).
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A Chosen Few Short Stories
Frank Richard Stockton 试读
The stories contained in this little volume were chosen, by virtue of a sort of literary civil-service examination, in order that they might be grouped together as a representative class of the author's best-known work in this line. Several of these stories have points of peculiar interest to the author. For instance, Negative Gravity was composed in Switzerland when the author was temporarily confined to the house in full view of unreachable Alps. His Wife's Deceased Sister was suggested by an editorial disposition to compare all the author's work with one previous production, and to discard everything which did not accord exactly with the particular story which had been selected as a standard of merit. The Lady, or the Tiger was printed in the hope that the author might receive the cheerful cooperation of some of his readers in a satisfactory solution of the problem contained in the little story but although he has had much valuable assistance in this direction he has also been the recipient of a great deal of scolding. After reading several stories by Clark Russell, the author's mind was led to consider the possibility of inventing some sort of shipwreck which had never yet been made the subject of a story. His efforts in this line resulted in The Remarkable Wreck of the 'Thomas Hyke.' A Piece of Red Calico is a description, with exaggerated points, of an actual experience.
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A Daughter of the Snows
Jack London 试读
"A Daughter of the Snows" by Jack London is the story about a rebellious girl who is not afraid to challenge a traditional society where females are expected to be obedient.
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A Fairy Tale in Two Acts Taken from Shakespeare(1763)
William Shakespeare 试读
Quince, a Carpenter, Mr. Love.Bottom, the Weaver, Mr. Baddely.Snug, the Joiner, Mr. Clough.Flute, the Bellows-mender, Mr. Castle.Snout, the Tinker, Mr. Ackman.Starveling, the Taylor, Mr. Parsons.(This paragraph from the first chapter)
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Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert 试读
This exquisite novel tells the story of one of the most compelling heroines in modern literature--Emma Bovary. Unhappily married to a devoted, clumsy provincial doctor, Emma revolts against the ordinariness of her life by pursuing voluptuous dreams of ecstasy and love. But her sensuous and sentimental desires lead her only to suffering corruption and downfall. A brilliant psychological portrait, Madame Bovary searingly depicts the human mind in search of transcendence. Who is Madame Bovary? Flaubert's answer to this question was superb: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." Acclaimed as a masterpiece upon its publication in 1857, the work catapulted Flaubert to the ranks of the world's greatest novelists. This volume, with its fine translation by Lowell Bair, a perceptive introduction by Leo Bersani, and a complete supplement of essays and critical comments, is the indispensable Madame Bovary.
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A Dolls House
Henrik Ibsen 试读
This epochal drama of marriage and the individual portrays a controlling husband Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora, a submissive young woman who, when their idealized homelife collapses, comes to the realization that she must finally close the door on her husband, children, and life in "a doll's house" in order to find and live as her true self.
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Alices Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll 试读
It tells the story of a girl named Alice into a fantasy world from rabbit dry, encountered many can speak like organisms and are generally activities cards, finally found is a dream……
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As You Like It
William Shakespeare 试读
Includes the unabridged text of Shakespeare's classic play plus a complete study guide that helps readers gain a thorough understanding of the work's content and context. The comprehensive guide includes scene-by-scene summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, analytical paper topics, list of characters, bibliography, and more.
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In Search of the Castaways; or the Children of Captain Grant
Jules Verne 试读
The contents of a shark's stomach contain a bottle that holds partially deteriorated notes written in three different languages. Together they give clues to the location of Captain Harry Grant, whose ship the Britannia was lost at sea. While the latitude of Grant is known from the notes, the longitude is a mystery. Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Harry Grant's two children, and the crew of his yacht the Duncan, they set off for South America. On their journey the searchers encounter storms, earthquakes, deserts, floods, pirates, cannibals, wolves, and numerous other dangers as they trace the 37th parallel across South America, then across Australia, and finally across New Zealand. Includes 90 vintage illustrations from the original 1873 edition.
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Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman 试读
Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, contained twelve long untitled poems, but Whitman continued to expand it throughout his life.Whitman's poetry was unprecedented in its unapologetic joy in the physical and its inextricable link to the spiritual. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote to him: "I am very happy in reading [Leaves of Grass], as great power makes us happy ... I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be."
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Little Men
Louisa May Alcott 试读
"Little Men" (1871) continues Louisa May Alcott's story of the March family. It picks up from "Little Women" and "Good Wives" to follow tomboy Jo into her married life. Jo and her husband, Prof. Bhaer, have opened a school for boys. Jo takes charge, but she retains a "merry sort of face," and the boys call her jolly. The school takes in troubled cases including homeless "little chap," Nat, and rowdy run-away Dan. Alcott pictures the kind of boyhood that the recent bestseller, "The Dangerous Book for Boys," hopes to rekindle. Alcott's boys climb trees and sneak off to light their first (choke ) cigars, but each lad has the makings of a good man -- qualities that Jo intends to bring out. The language might sound as quaint as "thunder turtles " and "hoydens" (grrrls), but the drama is the same now as always. Jo's concern for her boys is every teacher's -- every right parent's -- hope for every child. The story concludes with "Jo's Boys: And How They Turned Out."
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A Boys Ride
Gulielma Zollinger 试读
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - It was the last of May in the north of England, in the year 1209. A very different England from what any boy of to-day has seen. A chilly east wind was blowing. The trees of the vast forests were all in leaf but the ash trees, and they were unfolding their buds. And along a bridle-path a few miles southwest of York a lad of fourteen was riding, while behind him followed a handsome deerhound. A boy of fourteen, at that age of the world, was an older and more important personage than he is to-day. If he were well-born he had, generally, by this time, served his time as a page and was become an esquire in the train of some noble lord. That this lad had not done so was because his uncle, a prior in whose charge he had been reared since the early death of his parents, had designed him for a priest. Priest, however, he had declined to be, and his uncle had now permitted him to go forth unattended to attach himself as page to some lord, if he could.
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Ozma of Oz
Lyman Frank Baum 试读
Readers of all ages will welcome the chance to be reunited with Dorothy Gale and other beloved characters in the third Oz book by L. Frank Baum Dorothy and her trusty hen, Billina, are washed ashore in the Land of Ev after a shipwreck. At first Dorothy is delighted to find lunch grows on trees in lunchboxes. But soon she realizes there is a darker side to the Land of Ev. On the seashore, Dorothy encounters the Wheelers, terrifying creatures with wheels instead of hands and feet. She manages to escape and befriend Tik-Tok, a loyal, robot-like creature who needs to be wound up like a toy to function. He warns her to stay away from the Wheelers and tells her the story of the Land of Ev. The royal family of Ev have been dethroned by the evil Nome King of the neighboring kingdom. Tik-Tok explains to Dorothy that her friend Princess Ozma of Oz is traveling to Ev by magic carpet to help save the royal family. Can Dorothy help Ozma and the royal family?
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The Orange Fairy Book
Andrew Lang 试读
The 33 stories in "The Orange Fairy Book" delve into the oral traditions of Rhodesia, Uganda, the American Indian, European sources, the Punjab, Jutland, and Madame All the tales are narrated in clear, lively prose.
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The Song of Roland
Anonymous 试读
One of the crowning achievements of medieval artistic genius, The Song of Roland tells the story of the battle of Roncesvals in 778.At the center of this heroic epic is Roland, the supreme embodiment of the chivalric ideal who leads his men into combat and fights valiantly to the death.As Robert Harrison, the translator of this acclaimed edition, explains, "The carefully balanced structure of The Song of Roland is designed like a folding mirror to reflect the battle between Good and Evil at all levels of meaning."
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The Soul of Man under Socialism
王尔德 试读
The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. In fact, scarcely anyone at all escapes. Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin a great poet, like Keats a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand 'under the shelter of the wall, ' as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world.
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The Winters Tale
William Shakespeare 试读
The Winter's Tale was one of the very last plays Shakespeare wrote, a moving romance whose themes are sin, forgiveness, death, rebirth, and the power of Time and Nature to heal all wounds. Based on a novella by Shakespeare's enemy and arch rival Robert Greene, The Winter's Tale introduces Perdita, perhaps the Bard's most richly symbolic character. At times tragic, at times humorous, but always entertaining and instructive, The Winters Tale is a complex and rewarding work by the greatest dramatist of all time.A Shakespeare Society Production. The complete play in four acts.
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The Yellow Fairy Book
Andrew Lang 试读
American Indian, Russian, German, Icelandic, French, and other stories -- 48 in all -- among them "The Tinder-box," "The Nightingale," and "How to Tell a True Princess." 104 illustrations.
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Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson 试读
Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Captain Flint, youngJim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. For he hasdiscovered a map that will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island.But a host of villains, wild beasts and deadly savages standbetween him and the stash of gold. Not to mention the most infamouspirate ever to sail the high seas...With a wonderfully funnyintroduction by award-winning author Eoin Colfer, "Treasure Island"is one of the twelve brilliant classic stories being relaunched in"Puffin Classics" in March 2008.
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What Katy Did at School
Susan Coolidge 试读
What Katy Did at School and What Katy Did Next continue the story of the high-spirited and rebellious American girl, Katy Carr, and her family, who first appeared in What Katy Did. What Katy Did at School is a compelling tale of the intrigues of life at the New England girls' boarding school which Katy attends. Her trials and adventures are all interwoven with a sense of fun and gently ironic good humour. What Katy Did Next describes a tour by Katy of Europe, as she evolves from the child of earlier books into a spirited young woman, and brings to a satisfying close this delightful trilogy.
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A Blot in the Scutcheon
Robert Browning 试读
Oh, Mildred, have I met your brother's face? Compelled myself--if not to speak untruth, Yet to disguise, to shun, to put aside The truth, as--what had e'er prevailed on me Save you to venture? Have I gained at last Your brother, the one scarer of your dreams.
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An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith 试读
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniencies for which it has occasion. This is a public domain book converted by anonymous volunteers and you may find it for free on the web.This work is respectfully inscribed by the author.
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Uncle Noahs Christmas Inspiration
Leona Dalrymple 试读
Leona Dalrymple (Mrs. C. Acton Wilson) (1884-? ) was an American author. In 1914, she won a prize of $10,000 for her novel, Diane of the Green Van (1914). Among her other stories are The Colonel's Maid (1910), Traumerei (1912), Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration (1913), The Lovable Meddler (1915), Jimsy; The Christmas Kid (1915), When the Yule-Log Burns: A Christmas Story (1916), Kenny (1917)... She also wrote short stories for magazines and moving picture scenarios.
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Camp and Trail A Story of the Maine Woods
Isabel Hornibrook 试读
Now, Neal Farrar, you've got to be as still as the night itself, remember. If you bounce, or turn, or draw a long breath, you won't have a rag of reputation as a deer-hunter to take back to England. Sneeze once, and we're done for. That means more diet of flapjacks and pork, instead of venison steaks. And I guess your city appetite won't rally to pork much longer, even in the wilds. Neal Farrar sighed as if there was something in that. "But, you know, it's just when an unlucky fellow would give his life not to sneeze that he's sure to bring out a thumping big one," he said plaintively.
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Under Fire:the story of a squad
Gustave Flaubert 试读
MONT BLANC, the Dent du Midi, and the Aiguille Verte look across at the bloodless faces that show above the blankets along the gallery of the sanatorium. This roofed-in gallery of rustic wood-work on the first floor of the palatial hospital is isolated in Space and overlooks the world. The blankets of fine wool—red, green, brown, or white—from which those wasted cheeks and shining eyes protrude are quite still. No sound comes from the long couches except when some one coughs, or that of the pages of a book turned over at long and regular intervals, or the undertone of question and quiet answer between neighbors, or now and again the crescendo disturbance of a daring crow, escaped to the balcony from those flocks that seem threaded across the immense transparency like chaplets of black pearls.
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Baby Mine
Margaret Mayo 试读
The first year of a baby's life is a wondrous time, with each day bringing new changes and emotions. This journal goes above and beyond the traditional baby book, recognizing the journey that mother and child embark on together. Guided prompts throughout allow a new mom to record all the precious moments of baby's development, and also to reflect on what these milestones stir within her. There's also room to add pictures and other mementos.
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Yollop
George Barr McCutcheon 试读
Instead of obeying Cassius beckoned to him. Then followed a long, whispered conference between lawyer and client, at the end of which the former, visibly annoyed, declared that the defendant had decided not to testify. The Court indicated that it was optional with the prisoner and asked if the counsel desired to introduce any further testimony. Counsel for the defense announced that his client's decision had altered his plans and that he was forced to rest his case. The Assistant District Attorney stated that he had two witnesses to examine in rebuttal.
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A Christmas Carol(免费公版书)
Charles Dickens 试读
On Christmas Eve, Scrooge sits in his house with not a kind word for anyone; he just wants to be left alone until the humbug of Christmas is over. But four ghostly visitorshis former business partner, followed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Comeshow him the error of his ways, and by the time Christmas Day dawns, Scrooge is a changed person.
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He Fell in Love with His Wife
Edward Payson Roe 试读
Reverend Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888) was an American novelist born in Moodna, Orange County, New York. He studied at Williams College and at Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1862 he became chaplain of the Second New York Cavalry, U.S. V., and in 1864 chaplain of Hampton Hospital in Virginia. In 1866-74 he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Highland Falls, New York. In 1874 he moved to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, where he devoted himself to the writing of fiction and to horticulture. During the American Civil War he wrote weekly letters to the New York Evangelist, and subsequently lectured on the war and wrote for periodicals. Amongst his novels are: Barriers Burned Away (1872), What Can She Do? (1873), Opening a Chestnut Burr (1874), Success with Small Fruits (1880), A Day of Fate (1880), Without a Home (1881), His Sombre Rivals (1884), A Young Girl's Wooing (1884), An Original Belle (1885), He Fell in Love with His Wife (1886), Driven Back to Eden (1886) The Earth Trembled (1887), Miss Lou (1888), Nature's Serial Story (1889), Taken Alive, and Other Stories (1892), and The Home Acre.
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How to Do It
Edward Everett Hale 试读
Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 - June 10, 1909) was an American author and Unitarian clergyman.
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Glengarry School Days – a story of early days in Glengarry
Ralph Connor 试读
The "Twentieth" school was built of logs hewn on two sides. The cracks were chinked and filled with plaster, which had a curious habit of falling out during the summer months, no one knew how; but somehow the holes always appeared on the boys' side, and being there, were found to be most useful,
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The Celtic Twilight
William Butler Yeats 试读
Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) discovered early in his literary career a fascination with Irish folklore and the occult. Later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Yeats produced a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry of Ireland's historical and legendary past. "The Celtic Twilight" includes forty-two Celtic folklore tales, and Yeats makes no secret of his fascination and even belief in the world of the occult and the existence of faeries. Yeats' passion in these tales comes forth through the pages and adds a new dimension to these age-old tales. Though the stories are short in length, there is no scarcity of depth.
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Out of the Primitive
Robert Ames Bennet 试读
The second night north of the Zambezi, as well as the first, the little tramp rescue steamer had run out many miles into the offing and laid-to during the hours of darkness. The vicinity of the coral reefs that fringe the southeast coast of Africa is decidedly undesirable on moonless nights.(This paragraph from the first chapter)
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English Past and Present
Richard Chenevix Trench 试读
In editing the present volume I have thought it well to follow the same rule which I laid down for myself in editing The Study of Words,and have made no alteration in the text of Dr. Trench’s work (the fifth edition).
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Snake and Sword A Novel
Percival Christopher Wren 试读
Afterwards he adjured the sole witness of this impulsive and emotional act, Major John Decies, never to mention his "damned theatrical folly" to any living soul, and to excuse him on the score of an ancient sword-cut on the head and two bad sun-strokes.(This paragraph from the first chapter)
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She Stoops to Conquer
Oliver Goldsmith 试读
"She Stoops to Conquer" is the comedic drama that depicts the story of Charles Marlow, a wealthy young man who is promised to a woman that he has never met. While he is eager to meet her, Charles is quite shy in the company of women of wealth, however in the company of women of the lower classes he transforms into a lecherous rogue. Learning of this, Kate Hardcastle, the woman he is promised too, pretends to be a serving-maid in order to win Charles's affections. "She Stoops to Conquer" is a charming and light-hearted play.
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How to Tell a Story and Other Essays
Mark Twain 试读
"How to Tell a Story and Other Essays" is a collection of essays on various subjects by America's most famous satirist, Mark Twain. Contained in this volume you will find the following essays: How to Tell a Story, In Defense of Harriet Shelley, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, Travelling With a Reformer, Private History of the 'Jumping Frog' Story, Mental Telegraphy Again, What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us, A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget, The Invalid's Story, The Captain's Story, Stirring Times in Austria, Concerning the Jews, From the 'London Times' of 1904, and At the Appetite-Cure.
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New Chronicles of Rebecca
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 试读
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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Red Saunders Pets and Other Critters
Henry Wallace Phillips 试读
"Of all the worlds I ever broke into, this one's the most curious," said Red. "And one of the curiousest things in it is that I think it's queer. Why should I, now? What put it into our heads that affairs ought to go so and so and so, when they never do anything of the sort?
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The Eyes of the World
Harold Bell Wright 试读
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
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A Columbus of Space
Garrett Putman Serviss 试读
We simply listened in silence for what could we say The facts were more eloquent than any words, and called for no commentary. Here we "were," out in the middle of space and "there" was the earth, hanging on nothing, like a summer cloud. At least we knew where we were if we didn't quite understand how we had got there. . . .
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A Crooked Path A Novel
Mrs. Alexander 试读
The London season had not yet reached its height, some years ago, before the arch admitting to Constitution Hill had been swept back to make room for the huge, ever-increasing stream of traffic, or the plebeian 'bus had been permitted to penetrate the precincts of Hamilton Place. It was the forenoon of a splendid day, one of the earliest of June, and at that hour the roadway between the entrance to Hyde Park and the gate then surmounted by the statue of the Duke of Wellington on his drooping steed was comparatively free, when two gentlemen coming from opposite directions recognized each other, and paused at the gate of Apsley House—the elder, a stout, florid man of military aspect, middle age, and average height, with large gray mustache and small, slightly bloodshot eyes; the younger, who was tall and bony, might have been thirty, or even forty, so grave and sedate was his bearing, although his erect carriage, elastic step, and clear keen dark eyes suggested earlier manhood.
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Don Rodriguez; chronicles of Shadow Valley
Plunkett,Edward J. M. D.,Lord Dunsany 试读
After long and patient research I am still unable to give to the reader of these Chronicles the exact date of the times that they tell of. Were it merely a matter of history there could be no doubts about the period but where magic is concerned, to however slight an extent, there must always be some element of mystery, arising partly out of ignorance and partly from the compulsion of those oaths by which magic protects its precincts from the tiptoe of curiosity. Moreover, magic, even in small quantities, appears to affect time, much as acids affect some metals, curiously changing its substance, until dates seem to melt into a mercurial form that renders them elusive even to the eye of the most watchful historian. It is the magic appearing in Chronicles III and IV that has gravely affected the date, so that all I can tell the reader with certainty of the period is that it fell in the later years of the Golden Age in Spain.
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I, Thou, and the Other One A Love Story
Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr 试读
Beyond Thirsk and Northallerton, through the Cleveland Hills to the sea eastward, and by Roseberry Topping, northward, there is a lovely, lonely district, very little known even at the present day. The winds stream through its hills, as cool and fresh as living water; and whatever beauty there is of mountain, valley, or moorland, Farndale and Westerdale can show it; while no part of England is so rich in those picturesque manor-houses which have been the homes of the same families for twenty generations.
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The Romance of Golden Star ..
George Chetwynd Griffith 试读
'Ah, what a thing it would be for us if his Inca Highness were really only asleep, as he looks to be! Just think what he could tell us—how easily he could re-create that lost wonderland of his for us, what riddles he could answer, what lies he could contradict. And then think of all the lost treasures that he could show us the way to. Upon my word, if Mephistopheles were to walk into this room just now, I think I should be tempted to make a bargain with him. Do you know, Djama, I believe I would give half the remainder of my own life, whatever that may be, to learn the secrets that were once locked up in that withered, desiccated brain of his.'
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A Fool for Love
Francis Lynde 试读
Francis Lynde (1856-1930) was an American author who wrote The Master of Appleby (1902), The Grafters (1904), A Fool for Love (1905), The Quickening (1906), Empire Builders (1907), The Taming of Red Butte Western (1911), The Price (1911), The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush (1913), Branded (1918), The Golden Spider (1923) and Mr. Arnold (1923). " It was a December morning, --the Missouri December of mild temperatures and saturated skies, --and the Chicago and Alton's fast train, dripping from the rush through the wet night, had steamed briskly to its terminal track in the Union Station at Kansas City. "
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Nature and Human Nature
Thomas Chandler Haliburton 试读
Thinks I to myself, as I overheard a person inquire of the servant at the door, in an unmistakeable voice and tone, "Is the Squire to hum?" that can be no one else than my old friend Sam Slick the Clockmaker. But it could admit of no doubt when he proceeded, "If he is, tell him I am here."
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Letters on England
Voltaire 试读
Franois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. A satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize Christian Church dogma and the French institutions of his day. Many of his works and ideas would influence important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions, an honour that he would share with other political theorists such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. In general criticism and miscellaneous writing, Voltaire's writing was comparable to his other works. Almost all of his more substantive works, whether in verse or prose, are preceded by prefaces of one sort or another, which are models of his caustic yet conversational tone. He wrote Letters on England (1733), Zadig; or, The Book of Fate (1747), Candide (1759) and Philosophical Dictionary (1764).
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Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens 试读
A novel in which Dickens launches a ferocious onslaught against England and English society.He draws on the memory of his father in his depiction of the Marshalsea debtors prison and there is also the story of the love between an older man and a younger woman.
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A Woman of Thirty
Honoré de Balzac 试读
By the French author,who,along with Flaubert,is generally regarded as a founding—father of realism in European fiction.His large output of works,collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine),consists of 95 finished works (stories,novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works.His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in contemporary bourgeois France.They are placed in a variety of settings,with characters reappearing in multiple stories.
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Babbitt
Sinclair Lewis 试读
Prosperous and socially prominent, George Babbitt appears to have everything. But when a personal crisis forces the middle-aged real estate agent to re examine his life, Babbitt mounts a rebellion that jeopardizes everything he values. Widely considered Sinclair Lewis' greatest novel, this satire remains an ever-relevant tale of an individual caught in the machinery of modern life.