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(The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington which won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize. It was the second novel in the Growth trilogy, which included The Turmoil (1915) and The Midlander (1923, retitled National Avenue in 1927). In 1942 Orson Welles directed a film version, also titled The Magnificent Ambersons. The novel and trilogy traces the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in a fictional Mid-Western town, between the end of the Civil War and the early part of the 20th century, a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America. The decline of the Ambersons is contrasted with the rising fortunes of industrial tycoons and other new-money families, which did not derive power from family names but by doing things. As George Amberson's friend (name unspecified) says, don't you think being things is 'rahthuh bettuh' than doing things? The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington's best novel, said Van Wyck Brooks. [It is] a typical story of an American family and town—the great family that locally ruled the roost and v...

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Fiction

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Amory Blaine grew up in a wealthy family and was given an Ivy League education. Without a need to learn a profession, he chiefly dabbled in literature and partying. His school chums were of similar background, and the ideas they reflected to each other grew in their minds to be of the greatest importance. Amory began to think of himself as somewhat of a character in a Rupert Brooke poem (from which the book's title is taken). World War I intervened in this happy fog and brought focus to some, doubt to others. In the rapidly changing technology of the war era, the financial underpinnings of the Blaine fortune began to fall apart. The deaths of Amory's parents left the finances without a rudder and as Amory's situation deteriorated he came to realize he had only his interest in literature to fall back upon. Meanwhile, a series of young women traipsed through his life, attracted to his handsome face and bright wit like moths to a candle. But Amory could never master the role of being a real person... and, one by one, they traipsed out. This Side of Paradise was F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel and was one of the nation's most popular ...

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Fiction

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Burmese Commisioner Nayland Smith and his faithful friend Dr Petrie continue their fight against the evil genius of Dr Fu-Manchu when they seek to save the good doctor's lost love and protect the British Empire from disaster when their malignant enemy returns to England. (Summary by Elaine Tweddle)...

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Fiction, Adventure, Mystery

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A romance and adventure novel, set in England during the reign of Queen Anne. The book is much unlike the author's later detective short stories. The actual book is difficult to locate and appears to have been forgotten. It is not even listed by Wiki as part of the author's work, nevermind have any information on the book itself. (Summary by JCarson)...

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Fiction, Adventure, Romance

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The Stolen White Elephant was written by Mark Twain and published in 1882. In it, an Indian elephant, en route from India to Britain as a gift to the Queen, disappears in New Jersey. The local police department goes into high gear to solve the mystery but it all comes to a tragic end. (PLUS more TBD) (Summary by Wikipedia & John Greenman)...

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Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Mystery

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Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Written just before Prohibition to entail the possible troubles that might happen en route. Both sides of the argument, or battle as the case may be, strike out with various over-top methods like legislating most fruits and vegetables as unsafe or intoxicating large groups with breathable alcohol. (Summary by Daryl Wor)...

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Cookery, Fiction, Humor, Satire

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Eric Marshall is all that a well brought-up young man should be. Handsome, steadfast, and full of ambition, he is expected to expand the Marshall & Company empire -- and to marry a woman suitable to replace his mother in Nova Scotia's finest circles. When a sick friend asks for a favour, becoming a substitute schoolmaster in the Prince Edward Island countryside seems the perfect post-graduation lark. But when Eric wanders into an old orchard at twilight, his life will be changed forever... (Summary by Sarah Jennings)...

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Fiction, Romance

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An ex-convict breaks parole and starts a new life as a righteous man, but is pursued by a police inspector. Along the way, the ex-convict joins a revolution, adopts a daughter, and beats people up. Hooray. (Summary by smileyman457)...

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Romance, Fiction

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The American Claimant is an 1892 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The story focuses on the class differences and expectations of monarchic, hierarchical Britain and the upstart, all men are created equal America. Twain wrote the novel with the help of phonographic dictation, the first author (according to Twain himself) to do so. This was also (according to Twain) an attempt to write a book without mention of the weather, the first of its kind in fictitious literature. Indeed, all the weather is contained in an appendix, at the back of the book, which the reader is encouraged to turn to from time to time. (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman)...

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Comedy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor

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E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia series, consists of six novels and three short stories. The novels are: Queen Lucia, Lucia in London, Miss Mapp (including the short story The Male Impersonator), Mapp and Lucia, Lucia's Progress (published as The Worshipful Lucia in the U.S.) and Trouble for Lucia. Most of these works are set in the fictional village of Tilling, which is based on the village of Rye, Sussex, England. Mallards, the house with the garden room inhabited by Miss Mapp, and later by Lucia, is based on Lamb House, Benson's own home in Rye. Earlier, the house was the Sussex home of writer Henry James. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.)...

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Fiction, Humor, Satire

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Under the Andes was written by Rex Stout years before his creation of the immensely popular Nero Wolfe series of novels, and while perhaps his future writing style is still blossoming, certainly his knack for weaving a fantastic tale of mystery and adventure will have most readers anxious for the next phase of adventure at every turn. The story finds two brothers and a pretty female companion on a journey which eventually takes them to a series of underground caves under the Andes of South America, where they encounter a lost tribe of Incas who have apparently survived hundreds of years oblivious of the outside world. The apparent 'king' of the tribe has become infatuated with the fair-skinned female intruder of the group and, well, suffice it to say there's a lot of action, attempted escapes, heroism, and peculiar interactions between all, reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard with a touch of Edgar Rice Burroughs. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Mystery, Fiction

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The novel follows the lives of Rose and her widowed Aunt, Madame Francesca Bernard, along with young visitor and cousin Isabel, whose lives are changed by the return of an old friend and neighbour Colonel Kent, and his grown son, Allison. Other characters that help shape their lives in significant ways are the Crosby twins, unconventional and uninhibited youths that set society at naught, and an unconventional doctor who specializes in the impossible. Through the limited wide-scope descriptions the reader is not sure of the historical setting or even in which decade it's set, but it helps to understand the focus of the story; after all it's about their own little world, and how their own hearts and lives fit together in the tight confines of their town, their garden, their friendships and lives. (Summary by wikipedia.org)...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction

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His Grace of Osmonde, being the portions of that nobleman's life omitted in the relation of his Lady's story presented to the world of fashion under the title of 'A Lady of Quality'(Summary by Frances Hodgson Burnett)...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance

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Black Heart and White Heart , is a story of the courtship, trials and final union of a pair of Zulu lovers in the time of King Cetywayo. (Introduction by H. Rider Haggard)...

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Romance, Fiction, Adventure

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This is volume 4 of 5. -- An ex-convict breaks parole and starts a new life as a righteous man, but is pursued by a police inspector. Along the way, the ex-convict joins a revolution, adopts a daughter, and beats people up. Hooray. (Summary by smileyman457)...

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Fiction, Romance

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The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the white Raja of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor. The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales (Volume Five of the Indian Railway Library, published by A H Wheeler & Co of Allahabad in 1888). It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection. It is the basis for John Huston’s 1975 film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the kings, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling. (Interim summary by Wikipedia adapted by Philippa)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Short stories, Literature

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This book is an attempt to tell some of the stories of King Arthur and his Knights in a way which will be interesting to every boy and girl who loves adventures. (Introduction by Henry Gilbert)...

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Fiction, Teen/Young adult, Adventure

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The Black Tulip, written by Alexandre Dumas père and published in 1850, is a historical novel placed in the time of Tulipmania in the Netherlands. The novel begins with the 1672 politically motivated mob lynching of the de Witt brothers and then follows the story of Cornelius van Baerle, godson of Cornelius de Wit. Cornelius Van Baerle has joined the race to breed a truly black tulip – and to win the prize of 100,000 guilders, as well as fame and honour. As he nears his goal he is jailed and then of course rescued – by the beautiful Rosa, daughter of the jailer....

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Literature, Fiction, Adventure

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Phineas Finn is the fourth in Trollope's series of six Palliser novels. At the end of Phineas Finn, the second novel in the series, Phineas had returned to Ireland and married his childhood sweetheart after having left the House of Commons. As Phineas Redux opens, Phineas is working as a Poorhouse Inspector in Ireland. His wife having died in childbirth, he finds his existence dull and unsatisfying. Phineas' returns to England; his career advances and his romantic adventures continue, while we encounter many familiar characters including Glencora and Plantagenet Palliser, Madame Goesler, and Lizzie Eustace and her husband the Reverand Mr. AEmelius. (Summary by Karen Merline) [u][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope]Wikipedia - Anthony Trollope[/url][/u] [u][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliser_novels]Wikipedia - Palliser Novels[/url][/u] Warning! Do not read the Wikipedia article linked to the title of this novel unless you are prepared for a SPOILER!!! recordings of the first three Palliser novels are here: [u][url= /can-you-forgive-her-by-anthony-trollope/]Can you Forgive her?[/url][/u] [u][url= /phinneas-finn-by...

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Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance