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  Glimpses of the Moon

  Edith Wharton

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  A young couple's love is threatened by the destructive power of money
  Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive, but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to marry, but realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and society that their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate when either encounters a more eligible proposition. However, as they honeymoon in friends' lavish houses, from a villa on Lake Como to a Venetian palace, jealous passions and troubled consciences cause the idyll to crumble. Edith Wharton has perceptively described the choices faced by Nick and Susy; the same dilemma still facing those seduced by the pleasures of society.
  
  'Wharton's unjustly neglected novel...a luscious, worldly, sensuous read, surely the equal of its most obvious offspring - Tender is the Night.' BOYD TONKIN, Independent
  Edith Wharton was born in 1862 in New York, into a rich and socially prominent family. She began to write at an early age, although it was a habit viewed by her family as unsuitable for a woman of her social class. In 1885 she married Edward 'Teddy' Wharton, a Boston banker. They lived a privileged life, but Wharton gradually grew dissatisfied with the roles of wife and society matron. The Whartons moved to Paris in 1907 and divorced in 1913. Edith continued to live in France, her beloved adoptive home, until her death in 1937.

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  The Treasure of the Lake

  H. Rider Haggard

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  Gentleman adventurer Allan Quartermain discovers a strange African village in this 1926 novel by the author of King Solomon’s Mines.An Englishman living in South Africa, Allan Quartermain has spent his life exploring the mysteries of the Dark Continent. When he hears the legend of a lost tribe ruled by a magical priestess, he goes in search of a remote holy lake surrounded by tall cliffs. Together with his companion Hans, Allan discovers a land and a people even more peculiar than the legend describes. Published posthumously in 1926, The Treasure of the Lake is one of the last Allan Quartermain novels written by H. Rider Haggard. Set in the Victorian era, it is a quintessential tale of colonial adventure.

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  Remarkable Case of Davidson's...

  H. G. Wells

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  'The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes' is the strange tale of an inexplicable case of a scientist who, after an accident with a magnet and a flash of lightning, finds that his eyes no longer see the world where the rest of his body is but another part of the world altogether - a southern hemisphere island inhabited by penguins.

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  Heart of Darkness and A Personal...

  Joseph Conrad

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  This audiobook comprises two works: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and his autobiographical A Personal Record. The opening of Heart of Darkness finds Charles Marlow in fading light on the Thames Estuary, as he and his companions relax on deck, waiting for the turn of the tide. He tells of the time he turned 'freshwater sailor' on the River Congo, of his perilous journey upriver in a little steamboat with a band of white colonialists and a group of cannibals that takes him closer to the coveted ivory, closer to Kurtz the rogue agent, closer to certain unspeakable rites and the heart of darkness. Serialised in three parts in 1899, Heart of Darkness was first published in 1902. A Personal Record is a 'fragment of biography', an autobiographical work by Joseph Conrad, published in 1912. It has also been published under the title Some Reminiscences. It is a masterpiece of atmospheric writing and the main contemporary source to detail his early life. Conrad, Polish by birth, who goes on to become one of the greatest novelists of the English language, describes his childhood and adolescence, discusses his forebears, one of whom fought on the side of Napoleon and ate a Lithuanian dog, the exile of his parents, the death of his mother and his relationship with Uncle Tadeusz. Thereafter Conrad beautifully interweaves the tales of why he went to sea and how he came to be a writer. Its digressive structure is precisely what makes it a magical and timeless work about exile, destiny and art.

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  Women in Love

  D. H. Lawrence

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  Widely considered to be D. H. Lawrence’s finest novel, Women in Love shows this classic author at his provocative best It is the early twentieth century, and the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula, live in a coal-mining town in the Midlands of England. Ursula, a teacher, and Gudrun, an artist, are on a quest for happiness and intellectual fulfillment when they meet Rupert and Gerald. Rupert is decidedly attractive, and Ursula gravitates toward him immediately; Gerald is good looking and wealthy, and his friendship with Gudrun soon becomes something more. The four bond deeply through life’s tragedies and joys, and periods of alternating intense passion and strife. They move in and out of one another’s minds, lives, and beds in unexpected ways. Suffused with a sense of deep and compelling humanity, Women in Love is widely considered to be Lawrence’s greatest achievement—an exploration of love and sexuality in all its varied, beautiful, and devastating forms. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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  The Blackboard Jungle - A Novel

  Evan Hunter

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  The “shocking” and “suspense-packed” bestseller about one teacher’s stand against student violence, and the basis for the Academy Award–nominated film (The New York Times Book Review). After serving his country in World War II, Richard Dadier decides to become an English teacher—and for the sin of wanting to make a difference, he’s hired at North Manual Trades High School. A tough vocational school in the East Bronx, Manual Trades is home to angry, unruly teenagers exiled from New York City’s regular public schools. On his first day, Dadier endures relentless mockery and ridicule and makes an enemy of the student body by rescuing a female colleague from a vicious attack.   His fellow educators are bitter, disillusioned, and too afraid of their pupils to risk turning their backs on them in the classroom. But Dadier refuses to give up without a fight. Over the course of the semester, he tries again and again to break through the wall of hatred and scorn and win his students’ respect. The more he learns about their difficult circumstances, the more convinced he becomes that a good teacher can make a difference in their lives. His idealism will be put to the ultimate test, however, when a long-simmering power struggle with his most intimidating student explodes into a violent schoolroom showdown.   The basis for the blockbuster film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, Evan Hunter’s The Blackboard Jungle is a brutal, unflinching look at the dark side of American education and an early masterpiece from the author who went on to write the gritty 87th Precinct series as Ed McBain. Drawn from Hunter’s own experiences as a New York City schoolteacher, it is a “nightmarish but authentic” drama that packs a knockout punch (Time).    

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