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Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts was first published in 1881 and staged in 1882, and like his earlier play A Doll's House, profoundly shocked his contemporaries. Dubbed a dirty deed done in public by one of its critics, the play focuses on (among other things) venereal disease, euthanasia, and incest. The original title literally means the ones who return, and the play is about how we can deal with the awful legacy of the past. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Play, Tragedy

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Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born on June 23, 1876. At seventeen years of age, he began writing for the Paducah Daily News , his hometown paper. At nineteen he became the managing editor; up to that point, our nation's youngest. He worked as a columnist, a humorist and an author. But 'horror,' and 'short stories,' are not why he is remembered. He is remembered because he was, and still is, funny. And although he is now dead--he died March 11, 1944--this work Cobb's Anatomy, among others, has left an indelible mark upon mankind: a smile. (Summary by Carl Vonnoh, III)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Comedy

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Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, first published in 1892, is about architect Halvard Solness, who despite personal tragedy (including the death of his two sons) has risen to the top of his profession. He has succeeded partly through ruthless competition and exploitation and partly through a seeming ability to force his will on others. His unhappy wife Aline mourns for their lost life, and resents his interest in various young women, including his bookkeeper Kaia Fosli. Solness disregards the ambitions of other architects, including Knut Brovik and his son Ragnar, and seeks solace in the advice of family physician and friend Dr. Herdal. With the entrance of Hilda Wangel, a young woman whom he met as a child ten years ago, his life acquires a new focal point, one that will mean the end of him. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Play, Tragedy

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Kottō contains 20 Japanese stories, collected from different sources and translated by Lafcadio Hearn. The types of stories in this collection are widespread: There are old ghost stories Hearn is best known for (The Legend of Yurei-Daki), his own observations and musings (Pathological), as well as the translation of 'A Woman's Diary', a touching account of the life of the poorer classes in Tokyo, written at the end of the 19th century. (Summary by Availle)...

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Fairy tales

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Arthur Mervyn is the story of a young man from the country who arrives in a city stricken with Yellow Fever. He soon comes down with the illness and is rescued by a kindly doctor. Arthur tells the doctor and his wife the story of his life, thereby gaining the doctor’s confidence and good will. However, others familiar with Arthur tell another tale, and the doctor’s as well as the reader’s confidence in Arthur is shaken. Brown, who himself contracted Yellow Fever during an outbreak in New York City, vividly describes the horrors of the disease and its effects on an early American city. (Summary by Margaret)...

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Fiction

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The Doctor's Dilemma is about Dr. Colenso Ridgeon, who has recently been knighted because of a miraculous new treatment he developed for tuberculosis. As his friends arrive to congratulate him on his success, he is visited by two figures who present him with a difficult decision. He has room for one more patient in his clinic; should he give it to Louis Dubedat, a brilliant but absolutely immoral artist, or Dr. Blenkinsop, a poor and rather ordinary physician who is a truly good person? Dr. Ridgeon's dilemma is heightened when he falls for Jennifer Dubedat, the artist's wife, who is innocent of her husband's profligacy. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Comedy, Play

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When the absent-minded Earl of Emsworth wanders off with the pride of his scarab collection, American millionaire J. Preston Peters is willing to pay $5000 to the person who can get it back for him. Discretion is necessary since Peters’ daughter is engaged to Emsworth’s son. Joan Valentine and Ashe Marson both decide to go after the reward—she as Aline Peter’s ladies maid, and he as Mr. Peter’s valet—and they all end up at Blandings Castle. But is it possible for anyone to steal back the scarab with The Efficient Baxter ever vigilant? This is, IMHO, one of Wodehouse’s funniest novels. –Debra Lynn...

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Comedy

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The Poor Little Rich Girl is a children’s fantasy about a little girl named Gwendolyn who is lonely and longs for a friend. But she is isolated by rich parents who ignore her and left to the care of servants who are indifferent. Her nanny’s carelessness with some medicine plunges Gwendolyn into a bewildering world in which metaphors literally come to life. (Summary by Susan Umpleby)...

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Children

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Science fiction

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Struwwelpeter (Slovenly Peter) is an illustrated collection of humorous children’s poems describing ludicrous and usually violent punishments for naughty behavior. Hoffmann, a Frankfurt physician, wanted to buy a picture book for his son for Christmas in 1844. Not impressed by what the stores had to offer, he instead bought a notebook and wrote his own stories and pictures. While Struwwelpeter is somewhat notorious for its perceived brutal treatment of the erring children, it has been influential on many later children’s books, most notably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Summary by Catharine, Kara, and wikipedia.org)...

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Children, Comedy, Poetry

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“You will never be a leper nor will any Sister of our Order.” The amazing promise was made by Mother Marianne of Molokai, the “Quiet Flame” of the this title who, as a Sister of St. Francis , spent 30 years on that island helping lepers during and after the time of Father Damien. Mother was speaking to a young nun, and she spoke the truth. Not one of the Sisters ever did contract the disease, a notable fact considering the tender care they fostered on the lepers. This story of this good nun, was written by the author of a number of Catholic biographies and fiction books for children. (Summary from original jacket and Maria Therese)...

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Biography

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The improved theory and practice of religion and of medicine are mainly due to the people's improved views of the Supreme Being. (from The People's Idea of God )...

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Religion

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P. T. Barnum exposes some of the chief humbugs of the world with his usual entertaining style. He looks at medicine and quacks, ghosts, witchcraft, religious humbugs, money manias, adventurers, personal reminiscences, and much more. (Summary by Barry Eads)...

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Humor, Instruction, Memoirs

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volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Song by Tobias Smollett. This is the weekly poem starting from October 16th, 2011. It's a lovely love song. ( Summary by Stav Nisser ) Taken from the Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett by Thomas Gray et al. Smollett, for variety of powers, and indefatigable industry, has seldom been surpassed. He was a politician, a poet, a physician, a historian, a translator, a writer of travels, a dramatist, a novelist, a writer on medical subjects, and a miscellaneous author. It is only, however, as a novelist and a poet that he has any claims to the admiration of posterity.(Summary from the Explanatory Notes by The Rev. George Gilfillan, Edinburgh)...

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Romance, Poetry

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The Author sings the praises of Chocolate. By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called _The New Disease_; Fluxes, Consumptions, & Coughs of the Lungs, with sundry other desperate Diseases. By it also, Conception is Caused, the Birth Hastened and facilitated, Beauty Gain'd and continued....

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Cookery

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Williams spent his life as a doctor practicing pediatric medicine in northern New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City. During the work day, between seeing patients, he often dashed off poems on the backs of blank prescription pads that he kept in his pocket. This particular poem was written in just such a spontaneous way, after seeing the Russian Ballet perform in Manhattan. Each of the 16 readers in this collection took the challenge to make the same kind of leap - reading it spontaneously. (Summary by Alan Davis-Drake.)...

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Poetry

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In Part 2, Kitty’s health deteriorates from regret and heartbreak, while Levin retreats to his country estate. Anna and Vronsky continue to pursue each other and become the talk of polite society, to the chagrin of Karenin. (Summary by Mary Ann )...

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Historical Fiction, Romance, Tragedy

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Hiram Chase is a well liked Reverend in a small ministry in Utica. When his mental and physical health deteriorates, he is taken to Utica lunatic asylum. After his stay in the asylum, Hiram documents his experiences and those of other patients in the asylum. He describes his daily routine and the negative experiences he had, along with praising certain individuals whom he met during his Two Years and Four Months in a Lunatic Asylum. (Summary by Elaine Webb)...

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Memoirs, Psychology

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At the age of 16 Ballantyne went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. His rule in writing, being in every case, was to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described.In this book he details the lives of the crew as they must overwinter in the frozen north including their meetings with Eskimos and bears and their struggles with disease. This is a realistic account of what life was like for the explorers of the Arctic. (summary by Esther, adapted from wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Historical Fiction, Nature, Teen/Young adult

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Joseph Lister was born near London in 1827. He studied medicine at the University of London and pursued a career as a surgeon in Scotland. He became professor of Surgery in Glasgow and later (1877) at Kings College Hospital, in London. Lister’s contribution to the advancement of surgery cannot be overestimated. Before his work on antisepsis, wounds were often left open to heal, leading to long recoveries, unsightly scarring, and not infrequently amputation or death due to infection. Lister’s work enabled more wounds to be closed primarily with sutures, drastically reducing healing time, scarring, amputations, and deaths due to infection. Lister retired in 1896 but was called back to assist in the operation on King Edward VII for appendicitis just days before the King’s coronation. The King later credited Lister for his survival and quick recovery. Lister died in 1912. (Summary by Martin Clifton)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction