Frederick Davidson
2) Whose body?
His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy's frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy's finest work.
The story involves
...Four thousand years ago, a stranger's ominous gift and his death at the Old Temple of Ratharryn would precipitate the building of one of mankind's most remarkable achievements. Cornwell's epic novel, Stonehenge, catapults us into a powerful world of ritual, betrayal, and the never-ending pursuit of power, wealth, and spiritual fulfillment.
Three brothers, deadly rivals, are precariously united by a shared vision to create a temple to
...Colonial politics in 1930 Kyauktada, India, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations, but of lives.
Amidst this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory stands as a bridge between the warring factions, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native
...10) Sharpe's devil
An honored veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sharpe has become a peaceful farmer following Waterloo. But he comes out of retirement to undertake a perilous mission to find his old friend Don Blas Vivar, Captain-General of the Spanish colony of Chile, who vanished without a trace half a world away.
With intrepid Irishman Patrick Harper at his side, Sharpe journeys to Chile, a land seething with corruption and
...11) Hard times
Originally written for Dickens' weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school. The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative
...A country doctor has come to 221B Baker Street, the lodgings of famed detective Sherlock Holmes, with the eerie tale of the Hound of the Baskervilles. The legend warns the descendants of the Baskerville family never to venture out on the moors that surround their ancestral home, for fear that they will meet the devil-beast that lurks...
14) Intellectuals
Since the time of Voltaire and Rousseau, the secular intellectual has increasingly filled the vacuum left by the decline of the cleric and assumed the functions of moral mentor and critic of mankind. This fascinating portrait of the minds that have shaped the modern world examines the moral credentials of those whose thoughts have influenced humanity.
How do intellectuals set about reaching their conclusions? How carefully do they examine the
...In 1936, originally intending merely to report on the Spanish Civil War as a journalist, George Orwell found himself embroiled as a participant—as a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unity. Fighting against the Fascists, he described...
16) Sharpe's company
In an age of heroes and death before dishonor, one man stands above the rest.
It is January 1812. Captain Richard Sharpe has one mission: to thwart Napoleon's dreams of an empire. To accomplish that goal, Sharpe and the fighting men of the Light Company must seize the fortress of Badajoz, which looms on the border of Portugal and Spain. To lead an assault on its thick, sheer walls and battlements is suicide, yet Sharpe has no choice, for
...18) Dubliners
Horace Rumpole—who never prosecutes, whose fame rests on an infinite knowledge of blood and typewriters, whose court scenes are proverbial, whose home is ruled by Mrs. Rumpole ("She Who Must Be Obeyed")—is back on the defense, as irreverent, as iconoclastic, as claret-swilling, poetry-spouting, impudent, witty, and cynical as ever.
This time the judge-debunking barrister-at-law is embroiled with a minister accused of shoplifting,
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