Rousseau creates an ideal model of one-on-one tutelage from infancy to manhood with himself as the child's mentor. As in so many of his other famous works, here, Rousseau asserts his main thesis that human beings are by nature good; it is only the distorting influences of civilization that have corrupted them.

The story of the civilized, enlightened Mr. Kurtz who embarks on a harrowing "night journey" into the savage heart of Africa, only to find his dark and evil soul. The Secret Sharer. The saga of a young, inexperienced skipper forced to decide the fate of a fugitive sailor who killed a man in self-defense. As he faces his first moral test the skipper discovers a terrifying truth -- and comes face to face with the secret itself. Heart Of Darkness and The Secret Sharer draw on actual events and people that Conrad met or heard about during his many far-flung travels. In portraying men whose incredible journeys on land and at sea are also symbolic voyages into their own mysterious depths, these two masterful works give credence to Conrad's acclaim as a major psychological writer.

Born into slavery, Linda spends her early years in a happy home with her mother and father, who are relatively well-off slaves. When her mother dies, six-year-old Linda is sent to live with her mother's mistress,who treats her well and teaches her to read.After a few years, this mistress dies and bequeaths Linda to a relative. Her new masters are cruel and neglectful,and Dr. Flint,the father,takes an interest in Linda and tries to force her into a sexual relationship with him. Linda continues to thwart his attempts and maintain her distance.Knowing that Flint will do anything to get his way,Linda consents to a love affair with a white neighbor,Mr.Sands.She is ashamed at her discretion,but she knows it is better than being raped by Dr.Flint.During their affair,Mr.Sands and Linda have two children.Their names are Benjamin,who is often called Benny in the narrative,and Ellen.Throughout her narrative,Jacobs argues that a powerless slave girl cannot be held to the same standards of morality as a free woman.She also has practical reasons for agreeing to the affair:she hopes that when Flint finds out about it,he will sell her to Sands in disgust.Instead,the vengeful Flint sends Linda to his son's plantation to be broken in as a field hand.

Cast in the form of a waling tour through Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy, Mark Twain's account of traveling in Europe (1880) sparkles with his shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture. A TRAMP ABROAD showcases Twain's unparalleled ability to integrate humorous sketches, autobiographical tidbits, and historical anecdotes in a consistently entertaining narrative. Illustrated by Twain.

Bartleby is a kind of clerk, a copyist,who obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded of him; During the spring of 1851, Melville felt similarly about his work on Moby Dick. Thus, Bartleby can be seen to represent Melville's frustration with his own situation as a writer, and the story itself is about a writer who forsakes conventional modes because of an irresistible preoccupation with the most baffling philosophical questions Bartleby can also be seen to represent Melville's relation to his commercial, democratic society.

Without Thomas Paine, the United States of America would not be the strong and independent country it is today. In 1776 Paine insightfully argued that it would only be a short time before the colonies would break with England. Within the first three months of its publication, Common Sense sold 120,000 copies and became the foundation for American political literature. Paine's vision and quotable slogans defined the United States at its most critical point in history and remains relevant for today's citizens.

When Rose Campbell, a shy orphan, arrives at "The Aunt Hill" to live with her six aunts and seven boisterous male cousins, she is quite overwhelmed. How could such a delicate young lady, used to the quiet hallways of a girls' boarding school, exist in such a spirited home It is the arrival of Uncle Alec that changes everything. Much to the horror of her aunts, Rose's forward-thinking uncle insists that the child get out of the parlor and into the sunshine. And with a little courage and lots of adventures with her mischievous but loving cousins, Rose begins to bloom.

Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) wrote New Atlantis around 1632. He wrote of his aspiration for establishing an ideal commonwealth. This section from the introduction gives a summary of Bacon's reasons for writing this short essay. "The generosity and enlightenment, the dignity and splendor, the piety and public spirit, of the inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities which Bacon the statesman desired rather than hoped to see characteristic of his own country and in Solomon's House we have Bacon the scientist indulging without restriction his prophetic vision of the future of human knowledge. No reader acquainted in any degree with the processes and results of modern scientific inquiry can fail to be struck by the numerous approximations made by Bacon's imagination to the actual achievements of modern times." Even in Bacon's idealistic viewpoint he still saw science in a practical manner. Science was the way to man's advancement. Bacon's ideals have yet to be achieved, but they do give us goals to reach for.

An idealistic professor transforms an unsophisticated Cockney girl into a refined young lady in this classic drama set in turn-of-the-century London.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories.

Basil Hallward, an artist, meets Dorian Gray and paints his portrait. The artist is so infatuated with Dorian's beauty that he begins to believe it is the reason for his quality of art. Dorian becomes convinced that beauty is all-important and wishes his portrait could age instead of him. Beware of what you have wish for Each time Dorian commits a sin his portrait ages, showing him what is happening to his soul.

The Winter's Tale was one of the very last plays Shakespeare wrote, a moving romance whose themes are sin, forgiveness, death, rebirth, and the power of Time and Nature to heal all wounds. Based on a novella by Shakespeare's enemy and arch rival Robert Greene, The Winter's Tale introduces Perdita, perhaps the Bard's most richly symbolic character. At times tragic, at times humorous, but always entertaining and instructive, The Winters Tale is a complex and rewarding work by the greatest dramatist of all time.A Shakespeare Society Production. The complete play in four acts.

Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Captain Flint, youngJim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. For he hasdiscovered a map that will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island.But a host of villains, wild beasts and deadly savages standbetween him and the stash of gold. Not to mention the most infamouspirate ever to sail the high seas...With a wonderfully funnyintroduction by award-winning author Eoin Colfer, "Treasure Island"is one of the twelve brilliant classic stories being relaunched in"Puffin Classics" in March 2008.

We were right in the middle of this, and Aunty May was a little red-faced, and her hair was kind of wild, when we heard somebody laugh, and there was the painter-man down by the river, laughing as hard as he could laugh; and Aunty Edith trying to look severe at Aunty May and not able to, on account of her looking so comical. She had a black smudge from the end of the beanpole, which had been in a bonfire, across her forehead. You see she had just jumped the farthest, and was hollering, "Glug-Glug."

Colette se propose, d'abord, au lecteur, comme la souveraine d'un royaume sensible, la reine des choses prochaines, un écrivain de la nature. Pourtant, (elle) n'est pas orientée vers la campagne à la manière des romanciers paysans. La campagne de Colette est une campagne pour citadines, une campagne dont les baumes cicatrisent les plaies du cœur. Rien ne viendra à bout d'une certitude solidement appuyée sur la terre, d'une confiance animale dans la vie qui assurera toujours, en fin de compte, le ressaisissement et la reconquête de soi. Colette connaît la souffrance, et la fin inexorable de toutes choses heureuses ; elle les accepte l'une et l'autre, sûre d'une complicité secrète du monde, du chat qui dort près du feu, les pattes en manchon, de l'acidité des fruits sauvages dans les souvenirs d'enfance. Accepter est déjà la source d'une satisfaction mystérieuse.

A comprehensive collection of tales edited by the American essayist, editor, critic, and lecturer. American culture is indebted to him for helping to spread, by his lectures as well as his writings, a love of good reading in the United States.

"Fermé pour cause de première communion" : un tel avis, sur laporte d'une maison close, n'est pas chose courante, et les habituésde la maison Tellier, de Fécamp, n'en reviennent pas. Pendant cetemps, Madame et ses cinq pensionnaires vont retrouver à lacampagne, le temps d'une fête, leurs émois et leur innocence depetites filles... A c?té de ce chef-d'?uvre, huit autres nouvellesdéploient ici l'éventail du génie de Maupassant. Petits employésparisiens, paysans timides, noceurs désabusés, filles rouées ouna?ves : toute une humanité, où des surprenantes candeurs se mêlentà la violence des appétits et des intérêts, est dépeinte avec lacouleur éclatante et le réalisme vigoureux des toiles de Renoir, deManet ou de Toulouse-Lautrec.

This early work by William Wymark Jacobs was originally published in 1908 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Salthaven' is one of the author's few full length novels. Jacobs worked as a clerk in the civil service before turning to writing in his late twenties, publishing his first short story in 1895. Most of Jacobs' work appeared before the onset of World War I, and although the majority of his output was humorous in tone, he is best-remembered now for his macabre tales, particularly those contained in his 1902 collection The Lady of the Barge, such as 'The Monkey's Paw' and 'The Toll House'.

Tabitha Devins spent 18 years waiting for her mother to tell her whom her father was, where her mother had disappeared to all those years ago and perhaps shed some light on how she got magical abilities. Now it is the summer of her high school graduation and she plans on saving every penny she can earn to get off to college, leave the island of Porta Negra and her mother's secrets behind her. Now, as she sees a sliver of freedom in her future, her mother disappears once again with only a cryptic note. The clues lead Tabitha to the glen known as Dark Hollow where her mother originally disappeared. Tabitha delves into the nest of secrets her mother left and finds a world she never knew existed with a race of people with magical abilities much like her own. As she searches this new world for her mother, she discovers that her father has been looking for her as well. Before she can head off to meet him, she finds herself caught between a magical race of people discouraging her from meeting her father and the onset of a dark drama back on her island home which could keep her from ever being able to return home.

The main issue involves an examination of ethics and the stockmarket as we find that Hunter went broke in a copper deal and his son-in-law Sterling who is an investment broker runs through family fortunes like water on one speculative deal after the next. By the final curtain when he finally overdoses, we almost stand and applaud his demise. The themes of ethics and investment still seemed relevant today. As we become increasingly familiar and care about the characters, we become more concerned for their financial well-being which goes down the tubes with Sterling's abuse of their investments.