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The Scarlet Letter is the story of three New England settlers at odds with the puritan society in which they live. Roger Chillingworth, an ageing scholar, arrives in New England after two years separation from his wife Hester to find her on trial for adultery. For refusing to reveal her lover's identity, she is condemned to wear a letter °' sewn onto her clothes. Roger resolves to discover and destroy the man who has stolen his honour.
For the next...
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Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). Born in a Virginia slave hut, Washington rose from a slave child during the Civil War to worldwide recognition for his many accomplishments, becoming the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day.
In this eloquently written book, Washington describes his impoverished childhood and youth as a child in bondage, and
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Restless Classics presents The Souls of Black Folk: W. E. B. Du Bois's seminal work of sociology, with searing insights into our complex, corrosive relationship with race and the African-American consciousness. Reconsidered for the era of Obama, Trump, and Black Lives Matter, the new edition includes an incisive introduction from rising cultural critic Vann R. Newkirk II and stunning illustrations by the artist Steve Prince.
Published in 1903, exactly...
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The mysterious tale of an orphan who is made into a gentleman, with one of the best opening scenes you'll ever read: " Hold your noise! Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat !" Little orphan Pip scarcely imagines how a terrifying encounter with a convict on the lonely marshes will later transform his life. Pip is more troubled by his visits to strange old Miss Havisham-her decaying wedding dress and the house full of memories-and...
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"The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is the ultimate novel of retribution. Based on a true story, it recounts the story of Edouard Dantes, his betrayal and imprisonment in the sinister Chateau d'If. Years later, Paris is intrigued by the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, who bursts onto the Paris social scene with his millions. He encounters the three principal betrayers of Dantes who have prospered in the post-Napoleonic boom and, one by...
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A full-color illustrated edition of one of the world's best loved stories. When Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, sets off on the high seas in search of adventure, things never seem to go quite according to plan. Through a series of disasters and misadventures, he finds himself cast upon strange islands whose inhabitants are of the most unusual size, and the most confusing philosophies. Gulliver's Travels has been loved by many generations of readers...
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2020 February Book Group Selections
Freedom To Read!
Frequently banned or challenged books from 1990-1999
Freedom To Read!
Frequently banned or challenged books from 1990-1999
Description
"A beautifully illustrated version of the original 1925 edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic Great American novel. Widely considered to be the greatest American novel of all time, The Great Gatsby is the story of the wealthy, quixotic Jay Gatsby and his obsessive love for debutante Daisy Buchanan. It is also a cautionary tale of the American Dream in all its exuberance, decadence, hedonism, and passion. First published in 1925 by Charles Scribner's...
9) Dracula
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"The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of. Dracula is a preeminent work of horror literature, containing one of the best gothic villains of all time. When Jonathan Harker stays with Count Dracula in his crumbling Transylvanian castle, he is greatly unsettled by the man. After enduring a series of bizarre events, Harker realizes he...
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Classics. Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are...
11) Emma
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'The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself ... ' Beautiful, rich, self-assured and witty, Emma Woodhouse delights in matchmaking those around her, with no apparent care for her own romantic life. Taking young Harriet Smith under her wing, Emma sets her sights on finding a suitable match for her friend. Chided for her mistakes by old friend...
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For years, Dr. Victor Frankenstein labors to create a new race of intelligent beings. He spends his nights scavenging body parts from graveyards, slaughterhouses, and hospital dissection rooms. By day he experiments in his secret laboratory, perfecting the creature who, he believes, will worship him as a god. But when he succeeds, Frankenstein is horrified by the ugly brutishness of the patchwork being he has brought to life and abandons his creation....
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Jane Austen's first published novel, sparkling with wit and artistry, captures the inequities of birth, class, and marriage faced by the sisters Dashwood. Published in 1811, Sense and Sensibility has delighted generations of readers with its masterfully crafted portrait of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Forced to leave their home after their father's death, Elinor and Marianne must rely on making good marriages as their means of support....
14) Mansfield Park
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"Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park, first published in 1814, tells the story of young Fanny Price, who is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, at the age of ten. As she grows up, she develops deep feelings for her cousin Edmund Bertram, the only person at Mansfield Park who shows her true kindness. When the Bertram family is thrown into scandal and disorder, Fanny and Edmund must overcome the chaos around them so they can come to...
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"A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most thrilling narratives in the whole range of the literature of fiction. Considered apart from all the other works of Dickens, it would entitle him to a very high rank among romancers. The total effect of the novel, both in construction and content, is remarkably strong. A careful re-reading will convince one that no event is superfluous, that every scene pictured, every character introduced, every mysterious,...
16) Persuasion
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HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. 'She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.' Written at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Persuasion is a tale of love, heartache and the determination of one woman as she strives to reignite a lost love. Anne Elliot is persuaded by her friends and family to reject a marriage proposal...
17) The jungle
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"A searing novel of social realism, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle follows the fortunes of Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant who finds in the stockyards of turn-of-the-century Chicago a ruthless system that degrades and impoverishes him, and an industry whose filthy practices contaminate the meat it processes. From the stench of the killing-beds to the horrors of the fertilizer-works, the appalling conditions in which Jurgis works are described in intense...
18) Siddhartha
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What does it mean to live a life of completeness? And how far must one go to understand the pain of others? Is change truly possible? This is the story that proves that it is. In what could be described as equal parts self-help book and a novelistic guide to spiritual awakening, Siddhartha has been hailed as prolific and unlike any other.
Growing up, Siddhartha never experienced true pain. He was sheltered, as many are, turning
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"One of the most innovative authors and distinguished literary critics of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf examines family dynamics and the tensions between men and women in her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. A pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device, Woolf explores multiple perspectives of the members of the Ramsay family as they navigate experiences of disappointment and loss. Divided into three sections, the story...
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"An updated edition of a classic African American autobiography, with new supplementary materials. The preeminent American slave narrative first published in 1845, Frederick Douglass's Narrative powerfully details the life of the abolitionist from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his escape to the North in 1838, how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and driver, how he learned to read and write, and how he grew...
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