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Description
When her husband dies and leaves his estate to his son from a former marriage, Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters are offered a cottage on the estate of a distant relative. The two oldest daughters fall in love, only to find that the objects of their affection have secrets that throw their lives into an uproar. The reserved oldest daughter and impetuous, fiery middle daughter will take very different journeys to discovering the true worth of their respective beaus.
Published in 1811, Sense and Sensibility, was largely written fifteen years earlier, when Austen was approximately the same age as her older protagonist Elinor. It was published anonymously (“By A Lady”), possibly due to propriety, or perhaps because she wanted to avoid any negative publicity if the book was not well-received. She needn’t have worried; it sold out its first printing of a modest 750 copies. She used well-defined characters, humor, and satire to paint a vivid picture of life in the England of George III, with all of its manners, class issues, and unwritten rules of behavior. That it’s still being read over two hundred years later is a testimony to her brilliance.
Description
Leonid Andreyev was a Russian playwright and author of short stories and novellas, writing primarily in the first two decades of the 20th century. Matching the depression he suffered from an early age, his writing is always dark of tone with subjects including biblical parables, Russian life, eldritch horror and revolutionary fervour. H. P. Lovecraft was a reader of his work, and The Seven Who Were Hanged (included here) has even been cited as direct inspiration for the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand: the event that started the first World War. Originally a lawyer, his first published short story brought him to the attention of Maxim Gorky who not only became a firm friend but also championed Andreyev’s writing in his collections to great commercial acclaim.
Widely translated into English during his life, this collection comprises the best individual translations of each of his short stories and novellas available in the public domain, presented in chronological order of their original publication in Russian.
Description
Suetonius was a Roman historian born in about 69 AD, shortly after the death of the emperor Nero. This book, detailing the lives of the twelve Roman emperors who were known as “Caesar”—some by a family connection to Julius Caesar, some just as a title—is considered to be Suetonius’ most important work.
The Lives of the Caesars is a detailed account of the often dramatic lives of these emperors, whose abilities and morals varied enormously; from the capable, stable Augustus, to the insane Caligula. Several of these men died violently either by their own hand or by assassins. Suetonius, though, is careful to give credit where it is due, outlining the better actions and laws of each alongside an account of the crimes and immoralities they also carried out.
This turbulent period of Roman history has often been depicted in fiction and in media, drawing on the work of Suetonius and other contemporary historians. For example, Robert Graves’ novel I, Claudius (1934), which was made into a highly-controversial television series by the BBC in 1976.
Description
In The Golden Bowl, an impoverished Italian aristocrat comes to London to marry a wealthy American, but meets an old mistress before the wedding and spends time with her, helping her pick out a wedding gift. After their marriage, his wife maintains a close relationship with her father, while their own relationship becomes strained.
Completed in 1904, Henry James himself considered The Golden Bowl one of his best novels, and it remains one of critics’ favorites. Along with The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors, the novel represents James’ “major phase,” where he returned to the study of Americans abroad, which dominated his earlier career. The novel focuses almost entirely on four central characters, and explores themes of marriage and adultery in an intricate psychological study, which some critics have even suggested anticipates the style of stream-of-consciousness writing.
Description
Stanley Weinbaum’s The Dark Other was first written sometime in the 1920’s under the name The Mad Brain. The manuscript went unpublished until 1950, where it was posthumously released with edits by Forrest J. Ackerman.
Patricia Lane is a spirited young woman, in the midst of a passionate relationship with Nicholas Devine, a writer with a fascination with horror. When he starts to show bizarre personality shifts, she turns to her neighbor, a talented psychologist, to discover the source of these outbursts.
Description
Surprisingly timeless and under the guise of “Christian Mysticism,” Underhill describes in 1914 what could rightly be called “secular mindfulness” today. Evelyn Underhill doesn’t use much Christian terminology, instead preferring to use words that may be considered “new age.” If one can get past the terminology, the “Practical Mysticism” allows anyone to explore the mystical aspects of their own worldview without necessarily betraying their prior deeply-held beliefs.
Practical Mysticism is not a guidebook for mystical practice, though it does provide some tips along the way. What it does give is an introduction and apology for the sufficiently motivated; those that see (or want to see) the world in a different way.
Description
An ancient Roman hilltop fort proves an irresistible draw to Lucian Taylor, but what awaits at the top isn’t just a view of the surrounding Welsh landscape but a bacchal experience his young soul isn’t ready for. This experience sets his path as he attempts to transcribe his increasingly elaborate visions into the perfect book; the book that will actually mean something more than the banal novels he sees the publishing houses push out.
The Hill of Dreams is a semi-autobiographical work, with Arthur Machen following a similar physical journey to the novel: a childhood in rural Wales followed by attempts to become an author in London. Machen was inspired by a review of Tristram Shandy that described it as “a picaresque of the mind,” and determined to write “a Robinson Crusoe of the soul.” The protagonist’s isolation from the rest of society certainly resonates with that description.
Machen wrote this ten years earlier than its original 1907 publication, it having been turned down by the publishers of the time. While it was mostly ignored on its initial release, it has picked up admirers over the years and is now viewed as one of Machen’s most important works.
Description
In Little Lord Fauntleroy, an American boy named Cedric is transported from the impoverished streets of New York City to the grandeur of his ancestral home, Dorincourt Castle. Here he learns how to become an English aristocrat from the Earl of Dorincourt, his cold and cynical grandfather.
Frances Hodgson Burnett published this, her first children’s story, in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1885. Because of the story’s popularity, a year later, it was published as an illustrated novel to be sold around the world and translated to 20 different languages.
Description
The Red House Mystery is a detective novel by A. A. Milne, better known for his children’s writing, who wrote this book for his father in 1922. It is his only mystery novel and was very popular at the time.
Mark Ablett is the amiable host of a country-house party to which his estranged brother, Robert, arrives from Australia. Robert is the black sheep of the family who is said to have borrowed money in the past and had written to warn of his visit. One afternoon a gunshot is heard, and Robert is found shot in the head while locked in the library, while his brother Mark has vanished. Tony Gillingham, who has arrived to visit Bill Beverley, one of the guests at the house-party, takes it upon himself to investigate the death. Together Tony and Bill form a Holmes and Watson partnership and seek to solve the mystery in an unorthodox manner, taking over from a bumbling police force.
The Red House Mystery has divided opinion on its literary merit but it remains an entertaining and intriguing read nonetheless.
Description
Jane Eyre experienced abuse at a young age, not only from her aunt—who raised her after both her parents died—but also from the headmaster of Lowood Institution, where she is sent away to. After ten years of living and teaching at Lowood Jane decides she is ready to see more of the world and takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. Jane later meets the mysterious master of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester, and becomes drawn to him.
Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre: An Autobiography on October 16th 1847 using the pen name “Currer Bell.” The novel is known for revolutionizing prose fiction, and is considered to be ahead of its time because of how it deals with topics of class, religion, and feminism.