Will.i.am.
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Becky Sharp is sharp, calculating, and determined to succeed. Craving wealth and a position in society, she charms, hoodwinks, manipulates everyone she meets, rising in the world as she attaches herself to a succession of rich men. Becky's fortunes are contrasted with those of her best friend Amelia, who has none of Becky's wit and vitality but whose gentle-heartedness attracts the devotion of the loyal Dobbin. Set during the Napoleonic wars, Vanity...
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William Wells Brown's Clotel or, The President's Daughter is often considered the first novel by an African-American. When the book was published, Brown himself was legally the property of someone else within the United States, having escaped from slavery in Kentucky when he was younger. In this story President Thomas Jefferson and his former mulatto mistress Currer have had two daughters together: Althesea and Clotel. When their
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"F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), is a devastating portrait of a generation of wealthy young Americans who struggle to find meaning and happiness in their lives. The sophisticated but emotionally fragile Anthony Patch enjoys an initially idyllic marriage to the beautiful Gloria Gilbert. But their intense romance turns sour as they waste their time and energy in decadent leisure and luxury. Their happiness comes...
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"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Blind, broken by the death of his wife and bitterly disappointed by the Restoration, Milton dictated his sweeping biblical epic Paradise Lost to a series of helpers. While the struggle between God and Satan rages across the cosmos, the human tragedy of Adam and Eve the temptation and fall is movingly depicted in language unsurpassed in its musicality and beauty. A staggering and audacious undertaking...
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The Home and the World (1916) is a novel by Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore. Written after Tagore received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, the novel dramatizes the Swadeshi movement for Indian independence from British rule. Through the lens of one family, Tagore illuminates the conflict between Western culture and Indian nationalism while exploring the complex relationships of men and women in modern India.
Concerned for his wife, who spends...
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Felix Holt is an endearing but opinionated Radical, who returns to Treby Magna just as the wealthy landowner, Harold Transome, announces his bid for election. It marks the beginning of a tumultuous time as unethical players seek to undermine the voting process.
Treby Magna is a small English community that's home to Felix Holt and Harold Transome. Both men have returned after stints abroad with Harold eager to elevate his status in the political...
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Appearing in 1855, [this book] is the second biography written by Fredrick Douglass (1818-95), a man who was born into slavery in Maryland and who went on to become the most famous antislavery author, orator, philosopher, essayist, historian, intellectual, statesman, and freedom-fighter in U.S. history. An instant bestseller, Douglass's autobiography tells the story of his early life as lived in 'bondage' and of his later life as lived in 'freedom'...
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The Moonstone was published in 1868 and concerns the huge yellow diamond of the title that was once stolen from an Indian shrine. Rachel Verrinder receives the stone as a gift and does not realize that it has been passed to her in a sinister form of revenge by John Herncastle who, it transpires, acquired the moonstone by means of murder and theft. The jewel also brings bad luck. The stone disappears on the very night it is given to Rachel, though,...
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Born a slave in Virginia in 1856, Booker T. Washington rose in prominence to become black America's foremost spokesman. This is the dramatic autobiographical account of Washington's struggle to succeed and prosper in a country that refused to acknowledge his existence. From his fight for an education to his founding of the world-renowned Tuskegee Institute, Up From Slavery is one of the most significant and defining works in American literature. A...
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Great books of the Western world volume 37
Everyman's library volume no. 28
100 greatest books of all time
Modern Library college editions volume T15
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Everyman's library volume no. 28
100 greatest books of all time
Modern Library college editions volume T15
More Series...
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"A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire--though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century...
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Bunyan wrote the first part of "The pilgrim's progress" when he was in prison as a Baptist preacher. In his hands a pious tract is transformed into a work of imaginative literature which has been more widely read than any book in English except the Bible. Its influence, both indirectly on the English consciousness and directly on the literature that followed, has been immeasurable. The rich countryman's phrases that Bunyan borrowed or invented have...
13) The American
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A self-made American goes to Europe to enjoy his fortune and becomes engaged to a French widow from a noble family. Depicts the contrast between American and European culture.
14) The Decameron
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Revised for the seven hundredth anniversary of the author's birth, this tale of medieval Italian life details how ten young Florentines retreat to the countryside to escape the plague-infested city and entertain themselves by telling stories.
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ARRGH You Ready to Read?
Explore the Classics - YOUTH
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RPS Children's Books about Homeschooling
Explore the Classics - YOUTH
Patron Favorites
RPS Children's Books about Homeschooling
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CLASSIC FICTION (CHILDREN'S / TEENAGE). Shipwrecked on an unchartered island, the Swiss Family Robinson - mother, father and four young boys - make the most of their predicament, adapting to the island and turning the absence of civilization to their advantage. Through perseverance, hard work and self reliance, they become masters of their new environment. Their experience is colourful, creative and filled with exciting adventures. This illustrated...
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"Jules Verne's pioneering classic tells the story of the distinguished but eccentric Professor Lidenbrock, who finds a scrap of parchment in an old manuscript. A cipher, written in runes, tells of an entrance to another world - a world hidden beneath our own. So with his nephew reluctantly in tow, the Professor follows this cryptic clue down into a dormant volcano, and the further they descend, the more extraordinary the discoveries and creatures...
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Taken aboard the submarine Nautilus by Captain Nemo, the narrator and his companions find themselves captives on a spectacular tour of the world's oceans, and witnesses to Nemo's increasingly obsessive hatred of the surface world. Professor Pierre Aronnax was rescued from drowning by Captain Nemo, who insists that in order to protect the secret of his submarine, Aronnax must stay on board the Nautilus for the rest of his life. They explore the oceans,...
20) The politics
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Similar to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores another facet of good living by outlining the best governing practices that benefit the majority, and not the minority. In The Politics, he defines various institutions and how they should operate within an established system.
The Politics provides an analysis of contemporary government as it relates to all people. Aristotle discusses the positive and negative qualities of authority and how they affect...