An expatriate American who is very liberated and living abroad in Europe with her mother and kid brother scandalizes the Victorian high society of 1878.

H.G. Wells' "scientific romance," published first in serial form and then as a book in 1898, attained perhaps its greatest fame in another form, the infamous realistic 1939 radio broadcast "Invasion from Mars" by Orson Welles. It was also made into an early 1950s science fiction adventure movie. Stover (emeritus, Illinois Institute of Technology) describes Wells' story as "a prophecy of startling originality foreseeing the coming of totalitarianism...

Sparkles with the author's shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture in a narrative cast in the form of a walking tour through Europe--Publisher.

First published in 1915, "Travels in Alaska" is a collection of essays and recollections by John Muir of his time spent in Alaska. Muir is often referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and "John of the Mountains" and is most famous for his tireless work to preserve, study, and appreciate the natural world. Muir devoted many years of his life to the protection of the forests and mountains of the Western United States and advocated for making...

"This Side of Paradise" is about the education of a youth, and to this story Fitzgerald brings the promise of everything that was new in America during the years following World War I. Amory Blaine-egoistic, versatile, callow, and imaginative-inhabits a book that is interwoven with songs, poems, playscripts, and questions and answers.

Hailed by T. S. Eliot as "a dramatic delight," George Bernard Shaw's only tragedy traces the life of the peasant girl who led French troops to victory over the English in the Hundred Years' War. An avid socialist, Shaw regarded his writing as a vehicle for promoting his political and humanitarian views and exposing hypocrisy. With Saint Joan, he reached the height of his fame, and it was this play that led to his Nobel Prize in Literature for 1925....

"In Tales of Shakespeare, Charles and Mary Lamb wished to bring the plays to life in a form which would encourage young readers to enjoy Shakespeare"--Cover p. [4].

"For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to tragedy. Kino and his wife illustrate the fall from innocence of people who believe that wealth erases all problems"--P. [4] of cover.

Describes life at sea in the 1830's from the viewpoint of a common sailor in the American merchant service.

This novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworking father. Cal is a rebellious loner, sternly rejected by his father.