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Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's classic comic romance, in which the five Bennett sisters try to find that most elusive creature: a single man in possession of a large fortune. Sparks fly when sweet, pretty Jane meets their new neighbor, Mr. Bingley, but her sister Elizabeth is most offended by his haughty friend, Mr. Darcy. This is Austen at the height of her powers: the ironic narration, hilariously drawn supporting characters, and romantic suspense make this her most enduringly popular novel. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Literature, Romance

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The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915 and one of his best known works. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a horrible verminous creature. Terrifying in its banal simplicity, it became one of the seminal works of the twentieth century. This Translation is by Ian Johnston. (Summary by David Richardson)...

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Fiction, Literature

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There is an old anecdote, probably apocryphal, which describes how a feminine admirer wrote to Browning asking him for the meaning of one of his darker poems, and received the following reply: When that poem was written, two people knew what it meant--God and Robert Browning. And now God only knows what it means. (Summary by Gilbert Keith Chesterton)...

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Literature, Essay/Short nonfiction

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Edith Wharton was a novelist of manners of late 19th Century New York Society, who spent much of her life in France. In this novel she tells the story of Undine Sprague, the thrice- (or more) married, upwardly mobile beauty from Apex City, transplanted to New York, and finally to France, leaving the dead and wounded in the wake of her experiments in happiness. (Summary by Karen Merline)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Tom Sawyer Abroad is a novel by Mark Twain published in 1894. It features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of Jules Verne-esque adventure stories. In the story, Tom, Huck, and Jim set sail to Africa in a futuristic hot air balloon, where they survive encounters with lions, robbers, and fleas to see some of the world's greatest wonders, including the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, Detective, the story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Literature

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Masterful short stories about life in Dublin at the turn of the century, by James Joyce. (Summary by Hugh McGuire)

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Short stories, Literature, Fiction

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The story ostensibly concerns a young literary critics who greatly admirs the writer Hugh Vereker. A meeting with Vereker, however, shows him that he – and all other critics – have in fact missed the great point of Verreker's work, and the critic (and his editor) thereupon devote themselves to trying to unravel the mystery. James's story, however, almost certainly has an autobiographical side to it, perhaps itself criticizing those critics who couldn't see, or wouldn't see, the figures lost in the carpet of his own writing. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)...

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Fiction, Literature

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The Wings of the Dove, published in 1902, represents to my memory a very old--if I shouldn't perhaps rather say a very young--motive; I can scarce remember the time when the situation on which this long-drawn fiction mainly rests was not vividly present to me. The idea, reduced to its essence, is that of a young person conscious of a great capacity for life, but early stricken and doomed, condemned to die under short respite, while also enamoured of the world; aware moreover of the condemnation and passionately desiring to put in before extinction as many of the finer vibrations as possible, and so achieve, however briefly and brokenly, the sense of having lived. (summary taken from the Preface by Henry James)...

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Fiction, Literature

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An unlikely pair of wanderers they were; the orphan girl Lou and her travelling partner Jim Botts. Jim appeared in need of following some apparent 'rules' during the journey, while Lou seemed in need of better clothing, and perhaps some refinement. But who was most benefitting whom on the week-long journey from rural village to big city? And which of the two was willing to try anything once? (Introduction by Roger Melin)...

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Literature, Fiction, Travel

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I’LL WRITE THE SUMMARY LATER (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

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Fiction, Literature

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The book tells the story of a young man named William Crimsworth. It describes his maturation, his loves and his eventual career as a professor at an all-girl's school. (Summary from Wikipedia, adapted by Stav Nisser)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Edith Wharton's 1911 novel Ethan Frome tells the story of a tragic love triangle. Set in the highly symbolic wintry landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the narrative centers on the title character's fraught relationships with his sickly, cantankerous wife Zeena and his young, beautiful cousin Mattie Silver. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Literature, Romance

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Old miser Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a major transformation after being visited by his deceased colleague Jacob Marley, who warns him to change his ways and has three spirits visit him on the night of Christmas Eve. (Introduction by Jeff Robinson)...

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Holiday, Literature

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Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore talks of the many things he feels is necessary for creativity through joy of unity, he covers many topics like the creative ideal, makes comparisons of creativity between the east and the west, the spirit of freedom and about his idea of an University. (Summary by sidhu177)...

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Literature, Memoirs

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This book contains a critical essay on Shakespeare by Leo Tolstoy. It is followed by another essay named Shakespeare's attitude to the working classes by Ernest Crosby and extracts of a letter by George Bernard Shaw. (Summary by enko)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Literature

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The book describes the love triangle between a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a country background. Henry Knight is the respectable, established, older man who represents London society.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature

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The Woodlanders is one of Hardys later novels,although he origianally intended it as a successor to Far From The Madding Crowd.It concerns the life and loves of Giles Winterborne,Grace Melbury,Edred Fitzpiers, Felice Charmond and Marty South.The topics of class,fidelity and loyalty are delt with in Hardys exquisite style and set in the beautiful woodlands of Hintock (T.Hynes)...

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Fiction, Literature

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The Lifted Veil is a novella by George Eliot, first published in 1859. Quite unlike the realistic fiction for which Eliot is best known, The Lifted Veil explores themes of extrasensory perception, the essence of physical life, possible life after death, and the power of fate. The novella is a significant part of the Victorian tradition of horror fiction. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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The Death of Ivan Ilyitch is the story of a socially ambitious middle-aged judge who contracts an unexplained and untreatable illness. As Ivan Ilyitch is forced to face the death he fears, he asks himself whether the life he thought was so correct was, in fact, a moral life after all. Written after Tolstoy's religious conversion, the novella is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)...

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Literature

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The rich and flegmatic Kin-Fo loses his fortune and decides to die, but not before experiencing some strong emotions. He asks his friend Wang to kill him before a given date. Everything changes when Kin-Fo discovers he is not poor after all and he sets on a journey around China, trying to find his friend to cancel their deal. (Summary by Nadine)...

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Literature